Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation(Chords)

	        

 
Capo on the 7th Fret 


    
Am 
I got a letter from L.B.J  
   Dm 
It said, 'This is your lucky day'  
     Am                E7            Am    E7 
It's time to put your khaki trousers on 
Am  
Though it may seem very queer  
      Dm 
We've got no jobs to give you here  
   Am             E7          Am 
So we are sending you to Vietnam  

     F              C 
And Lyndon Johnson told the nation  
 Dm               Am 
Have no fear of escalation  
             E7           Am 
I am trying everyone to please  
F                C 
Though it isn't really war  
 Dm                 Am 
We're sending fifty thousand more 
              E7                 Am    E7  
To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese  



I jumped off the old troop ship  
And sank in mud up to my hips  
I cussed until the captain called me down  
Never mind how hard it's raining  
Think of all the ground we're gaining  
Just don't take one step outside of town  

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation  
Have no fear of escalation  
I am trying everyone to please  
Though it isn't really war  
We're sending sixty thousand more  
To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese  

Every night the local gentry  
Slip out past the sleeping sentry  
They go to join the old V.C.  
In their nightly little dramas  
They put on their black pajamas  
And come lobbing mortar shells at me  

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation  
Have no fear of escalation  
I am trying everyone to please  
Though it isn't really war  
We're sending seventy thousand more  
To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese  

We go round in helicopters  
Like a bunch of big grasshoppers  
Searching for the Viet Cong in vain  
They left a note that they had gone  
They had to get down to Saigon  
Their government positions to maintain  

Well, here I sit in this rice paddy  
Wondering about Big Daddy  
And I know that Lyndon loves me so  
Yet how sadly I remember  
Way back yonder in November  
When he said I'd never have to go  

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation  
Have no fear of escalation  
I am trying everyone to please  
Though it isn't really war  
We're sending a hundred thousand more  
To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese
	        

Written by Tom Paxton