They Left Our Buddies (In Vietnam)

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…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs

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…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Themes

P.O.W. · Patriotic · Vet

In collections

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