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 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 "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).

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: I want to tell you all a story, it's about our Uncle Sam / I pray to god that you'll listen, and that you'll give a damn / After years of years of fighting, trying every general's plan, we finally gave up, packed our stuff, and left Vietnam / Never heard much about the P.O.W.'s, the prisoner of this land / We might as well have said 'we don't care about you, get home the best you can' / They left our buddies back in Vietnam / It's been twelve years since we left, doesn't anybody give a damn / Well if you do, tell your Uncle Sam, you want all our prisoners free and back home again / I know they're still fighting and trying to survive / Hanoi says there's no prisoners, no one's left alive / I say they're lying and I say it's wrong / I don't understand why a country like ours would leave them there so long / They were willing to fight and die to keep our country free / Now if they are ever to get back home it's up to you and me / Write them lots of letters and call them on the phone / Tell all your Congressmen that you want our prisoners home / We still have the right to vote so make them understand / We're holding all the aces and we're going to play our hand... / We must have their freedom, for freedom is for what we stand / Give back all our prisoners must be our first demand / We must work together and follow this plan / So we can get them free at last and back home again... / We'll never really be free until they are I went to Vietnam in 1971, after growing up in…

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