tab by: Fabian Schild
Artist: Tom Paxton
Title: Lyndon Johnson told the nation
Standard Tuning
Capo on the 2nd 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
