Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation Lyrics

Lyric discussion by michaelmccaffrey 

Cover art for Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation lyrics by Tom Paxton

Can anyone help me interpret this song?

I'm thinking it's about President Lyndon B. Johnson?

Pretty self-explanatory....It's about the supposed deception by Johnson to get the U.S. into the Vietnam War. First he sent over "advisors" who later trained the South Vietnamese army. Next thing you know our soldiers were over there fighting. Nothing wrong with the premise of helping to keep South Vietnamese free from a dictatorship, but how the war was presented and then how our soldiers were not allowed to win it (due to politics and caving into American public opinion) is what is so troublesome...at least to me.

My relative was one of those "advisors" before he was drafter and then later enlisted for a second tour.