Kalla krige

Annotation

"Kalla krige" ("Cold War") Swedish, anti-war, anti-imperialist. 8-minute history of Cold War. Reference to Vietnam in final two verses. 1Sources1University of Michigan Library↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: When Roosevelt was dead and Truman took over / The Soviet Union was too red and Europe was slipping / Plans were drawn up for a better economy / Then the USA stepped in and said: money, that we have.... / In the war against Japan at the border of Manchuria / But the USA's patience was not infinite / In Nagasaki and Hiroshima the calm became complete / In the White House's great ballroom the cheering never ended / With weapons like these the reds can be cleaned out / Against communism's terrible giant conspiracy.... / For the struggle now stands between just two alternatives / Between communism's violence and capital's free life.... / As big brother decides, so it shall be / He who starves may be tortured until he feels free / He taught his daughter to sing / With the forked tongue of the Cold War / With an unsecured atom bomb at the hip / We can talk about the promises of freedom / When France, with its well-equipped, dollar-stuffed army / Had given up at Dien Bien Phu and wanted no more part of it / In July fifty-four, an agreement in Geneva / Which meant peace and which everyone signed / Except the USA, which would nonetheless respect it / It was handed to Diem, who pretended to consider / A series of paragraphs on a piece of parchment / He already knew the whole thing was a joke / Now the flag with stars and with stripes shall / Wave freely over all the countries of the earth / For everywhere nature has granted us / Natural resources to share out as we intended…

About the artist

Swedish left-wing rock group formed 1969 in Stockholm; later renamed Blå Tåget. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Anti-War · Cold War · WW2 · Korea · Atomic · Roosevelt · Truman · Marshall Plan · Diem

In collections

European Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]