We Didn't Know
1965 · Elektra EKL 298 · New York City, New York
- Artist
- Tom Paxton
- Title
- We Didn't Know
- Release
- Ain't That News
- Year
- 1965
- Label
- Elektra # EKL 298
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- New York City, New York, USA
- Songwriter
- Tom Paxton
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
The song "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" (Elektra Records # EKL 298), one of the key tracks of the anti-war movement, provides an important representation of the "credibility gap"- that the US executive / president mislead the public about the growing US military commitment to the region, and the nature and impact of US intervention. On 4 August 1964, President Johnson gave a speech on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, in which he told the American public that the US must take action against "this new...aggression". He re-assured the public that "we still seek no wider war". (1) Yet, in 1965 Johnson began to significantly escalate the Vietnam conflict - from 59,900 in June 1965 to 184,300 by December 1965. (2) Thus US folk singer Tom Paxton addressed this contradiction in the chorus: "Lyndon Johnson told the nation have no fear of escalation...though it isn't really war, we're sending fifty thousand more". The chorus also mocked the purpose of the war: "to help save Vietnam from Vietnamese". This is a good example of the use of humor found in Vietnam War songs. The lyrics and notations of this song appeared in the publication Broadside # 62, 15 September 1965. The verses started with…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Born 31 October 1937, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Folk singer-songwriter central to the 1960s Greenwich Village scene; his Vietnam-era songs include Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation (1965) and Jimmy Newman. [Source: Wikipedia]