Vietnam ad vitam aeternam
1967 · Mercury 152.084 MCE · France
- Artist
- Laurent Malek
- Title
- Vietnam ad vitam aeternam
- Release
- Vietnam ad vitam aeternam / La guerre des radios / Ma belle famille / Françoise
- Year
- 1967
- Label
- Mercury # 152.084 MCE
- Format
- 7" · EP
- Language
- French
- Country
- France
- Genre
- Chanson · Chanson
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
Laurent Malek, musician based in Paris, France, released the protest song "Vietnam ad vitam aeternam" ("Vietnam on Forever") (Mercury Records # 152.084 MCE), which focused on the use and impact of napalm - chemical weapon Napalm B - a jellied gasoline mixture, with polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Declared a war-crime since 1980, the US government extensively used this weapon during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973. (1) (2) (3) The Dow Chemical Company, the largest suppler of napalm to the US military, became a target of Vietnam protests (such as boycotts), particularly on university campuses. (4) - "after the napalm... the number of wounded... the sky is torn, rejected, revolted". Also note the reference to atomic / nuclear warfare several times, a reflection of the larger Cold War conflict, "the H-bomb... for Vietnam, napalm, flamethrower, cobalt, atomic chemical".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Paris, France