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Talking Vietnam Blues
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Phil Ochs
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1
Sailing over to Vietnam,
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Southeast Asian Birmingham.
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Well training is the word we use,
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Nice word to have in case we lose.
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Training a million Vietnamese
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To fight for the wrong government and the American Way.
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Well they put me in a barracks house
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Just across the way from Laos.
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They said you're pretty safe when the troops deploy
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But don't turn your back on your house boy
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When they ring the gong, watch out for the Viet-Cong.
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Well the sergeant said it's time to train
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So I climbed aboard my helicopter plane.
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We flew above the battle ground
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A sniper tried to shoot us down.
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He must have forgotten, we're only trainees.
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Them Commies never fight fair.
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Friends the very next day we trained some more
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We burned some villages down to the floor.
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Yes we burned out the jungles far and wide,
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Made sure those red apes had no place left to hide.
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Threw all the people in relocation camps,
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Under lock and key, made damn sure they're free.
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Well I walked through the jungle and around the bend
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Who should I meet but President Diem.
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Said you're fighting to keep Vietnam free
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For good old de-em-moc-ra-cy (Diem-ocracy).
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That means rule by one family
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And 15,000 American troops, give or take a few
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Thousand.
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American.
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Troops.
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He said: "I was a fine old Christian man
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Ruling this backward Buddhist land.
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Well it ain't much but what the heck
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It sure beats hell out of Chiang Kai-shek
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I'm the power elite. Me and the 7th fleet."
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He said: "meet my sister, Madam Nhu
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The sweetheart of Dien Bien Phu"
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He said: "Meet my brothers, meet my aunts
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With the government that doesn't take a chance.
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Families that slay together, stay together."
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Said: "If you want to stay you'll have to pay
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Over a million dollars a day.
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But it's worth it all, don't you see?
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If you loose the country you'll still have me.
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Me and Syngman Rhee, Chiang Kai-shek, Madam Nhu.
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Like I said on _Meet the Press_
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'I regret that I have but one country to give for my life.'"
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Well now old Dien is gone and dead
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All the new leaders are anti-Red.
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Yes they're pro-American, freedom sensations
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Against Red China, the United Nations.
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Now all the news commentators and the CIA
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are saying, "Thank God for coincidence."
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