Larry La Pole - A Place Called Viet Nam

Vietnam War song: rateyourmusic....
The track "A Place Called Viet Nam" (West Wind # SS-6123) by Larry La Pole & the Polecats - a country/rock outfit, who recorded this single on a Minneapolis, Minnesota record label. Larry La Pole wrote many songs for the surf rock band The Trashmen, such as King of Surf. This song told the story of a boy on the eve of his departure to Vietnam, at a bandstand. He asked a member of the band (the narrator of the story) to play a country tune before he left for war. The departing soldier supported the war because of the "fight for freedom". He them recalled that his father died in World War Two and his brother in Korea. He noted, with a degree of scorn, the draft card burners and protesters on TV, and said that "I could never do things that way...I sure know right from wrong". Finally, the narrator accepted the domino theory, that if the US failed in their mission in Vietnam, then "we might be fighting right here at home".
"You know the honky-tonk below the Georgia line
A boy stopped by one night to spend some time
He stepped off to the bandstand, and he said so quietly:
'Mister, would you kindly play a country song for me'
Oh please play a country song for a mighty sacred country boy
They handled me a rifle, and said 'son this is no toy'
You got a mighty big job to do, just do the best you can
Tomorrow you'll be leaving for a place called Vietnam
Well, we played his song and we took our break...
And he said, I'd like to thank you because I know you understand
You know my dad fought in Germany back in 1945
And my brother, he went to Korea
And neither one of them came home alive
Well I know that they are burning draft cards
I saw it on TV the other day
But I could never do things that way
I guess I'm not much of a protester...
Buddy, I've never been to college, but I sure know right from wrong
I love these green green valleys of my home
And I hate to leave my mum here all alone
But If I don't fight for freedom in that land so far away
Buddy, we might be fighting right here at home some day"

[@dkosky207]

I've met the great Larry LaPole, he's one of the nicest guys you could ever wish to meet. He very kindly autographed the back of one of my Trashmen LPs next to one of the songs that he penned for them.

[@joekat3458]

This song hits home, left for Vietnam right after I turned 18 returned and was medically discharged when I was 20. And now I look at things today and wonder what happened. And then I read Hanoi Jane Fonda just complaining because she got some kind of melanoma. Maybe she shouldn't have went to Hanoi.

[@aaronaragon7838]

Jane Fonda did not draft and send you boys to Nam. Blame politics and an out of control military complex that hurt a lot of kids, including Vietnamese kids: almost 2 million. Johnson did more damage than Jane Fonda's junket to N. Vietnam.