History Higher Level

FA-7 Rap on the Vietnam War

Abhinav Tripathi
Tuesday, 22 December 2020
I got a letter from Mr. L.B.J.
He told me “This is your lucky day
It’s time to put your khaki on
Though it may seem very queer
We have no jobs to give you here”
Time to get off packing
It’s time for us to do the attacking

Why? Because after is money is men

Truman sent 2.6 Billion afraid of China again
Then came Eisenhower
Signed a few papers and then turned to firepower
Geneva and SEATO didn’t stop the Congs
This was the start to all the wrongs

Then came the king of irony, J.F.K.

Sent in more of us in when he screwed up on the bay
Kennedy used his covert ops to kill the head of state
Later that year it was his head that was on a plate

Yeah, I don't know why I'm over here, this job is evil
They sent me here to kill innocent people
After Tonkin,
Lyndon tried a war without calling it one
And I'm forced to kick back and wonder
Why was I a part of Operation Rolling Thunder

I didn't sign up to kill women and children

For every enemy soldier, we’re killing six civilians
Ugh
They questioned the war back home
But Johnson decided to go airborne
4000 bombs a month

Forced to look when Tet happened

People couldn’t bear to watch anymore
And then we lost the core,
The embassy fell,
all this bloodshed
And for what?

They told us we are here to stop the Chinese expansion

But I haven't seen any Chinese since we landed
They sent me in for Mai Lai, made us kill 400 innocents
Made me nothing more than a militant

I spent days dodging millions of traps and mines

And at night, praying to God that I make it back alive
Back home, people ran through the back door
And M.L.K. won the bigger war

Then came Nixon

Right when people started throwing bricks in
Peace with honour? He killed out here and back home
Seems like he had an extra chromosome

We got pulled in 72, with memories to remain unspoken

Richard got kicked when the Watergates opened
And the pizza affect came true
As we withdrew

America’s image started to flake

Who knew Trump wasn’t the first orange mistake
We lost to the congs and gained PTSD
Many of my partners walked into the sea

All this just to get some SALT