Reflections & Suggestions

Annotation

The song "They Left Our Buddies (In Vietnam)" (Europa # EP-10087), a 1980s country pop collaboration between Tom Fear and & Larry Quick, released in Noble, Illinois, USA. Produced by Jeff Gordon. The lyrics took the argument that American P.O.W.s still remained in Vietnam: "Hanoi says there's no prisoners...I say they're lying". The narrator called on people to start a campaign, to put pressure on the politicians in order to push Vietnam to release the prisoners: "write them lots of letters" and "tell all your Congressmen". The narrator thought that "we...vote...we're holding all the aces". The lyrics presented the war as a fight "to keep our country free", and therefore the US government had abandoned and betrayed the P.O.W.s This sounded similar to the plot of several 1980s Vietnam P.O.W. films, especially Uncommon Valor (1983).The song "Reflections & Suggestions" continued with the theme above, a spoken-word narration with the above song played in the background. Narrated in the first person, from the perspective of a veteran, he explained that he gladly went to fight in Vietnam in order "to protest our family...from the enemies...before they reached our shores or spread their communism" - this represented the "domino theory" - that the collapse of South Vietnam into the control of the communist north would trigger the collapse of democracy in other countries and threaten the US - the idea of which came from President Eisenhower, during a press conferences on 7 April 1954.1 The song went on to claim that there are "2,413 Americans unaccounted for...549 were in Laos, and 82 were lost in Cambodia", and that the government had no analysed the intelligence data available. The song concluded by warning parents that it could be their son left behind next time. Sources1The American Presidency Project: The President’s News Conference, 7 April 1954↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs

The song "Reflections & Suggestions" continued with the theme above, a spoken-word narration with the above song played in the background. Narrated in the first person, from the perspective of a veteran, he explained that he gladly went to fight in Vietnam in order "to protest our family...from the enemies...before they reached our shores or spread their communism" - this represented the "domino theory" - that the collapse of South Vietnam into the control of the communist north would trigger the collapse of democracy in other countries and threaten the US - the idea of which came from President Eisenhower, during a press conferences on 7 April 1954.1 The song went on to claim that there are "2,413 Americans unaccounted for...549 were in Laos, and 82 were lost in Cambodia", and that the government had no analysed the intelligence data available. The song concluded by warning parents that it could be their son left behind next time. Sources1The American Presidency Project: The President’s News Conference, 7 April 1954↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: I went to Vietnam in 1971, after growing up in the shadow of Vietnam / It wasn't a question if I would go to Vietnam, but when I would go / Like most veterans I felt the responsibility to the country that had given us so much / We wanted to protect our family and friends from the enemies of the our country before they reached our shores or spread their Communism on the unwilling... / Never in my wildest dreams nor in my worst nightmares did I image that once the war was over that our country would turn its back on our P.O.W.s... / There are still 2,413 Americans unaccounted for... / Who have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, children, friends... / Thousands and thousands of people all over American still waiting... / Is our son still alive, how long will we let the P.O.W.s and their families go on suffering / For almost eight years after the war our government made little effort to collect and to analyse intelligence data indicating that there were still alive Americans being held prisoner... / 549 were in Laos, and 82 were lost in Cambodia / Primarily in areas controlled by Vietnam... / Let's make sure our Congressmen know how much we want our P.O.W.s home... / Parents it could have been your son...and...veterans, it could have been you

Notes

Europa EP-10087, 100 1st St., Noble, IL 62868; ℗ and © 1987; Side 1 "They Left Our Buddies... [in vietnam]", 3:57; Side 2 "Reflections & Suggestions", 3:58; both Europa Music Co. (BMI), produced by Jeff Gordon, Europa Productions, credited to Tom Fear, Larry Quick. The black-and-white picture sleeve, signed Steve Jones, shows silhouetted prisoners with hands behind their heads in tall grass, a guard in a conical hat, a watchtower against a full moon and barbed wire along the bottom. [From the record sleeve and labels]

Themes

P.O.W. · Patriotic · Vet

In collections

P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs