We Seek No Wider War

Annotation — Phil Ochs

Written and recorded in 1965, the track "We Seek No Wider War" by Phil Ochs looked at the "credibility gap" - expressing skepticism regarding President Johnson's statements on the Vietnam War - similar to the Tom Paxton song "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation". The title of the song was taken directly from Johnson's statement on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (4 August 1964), as noted above, when he said that "we still seek no wider war".1 The notation and lyrics were first published in Broadside # 63 (15 October 1965). The only available recording of this took place at the New York apartment of Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen, the founders of Broadside Records, stored on Broadside tape reel SC.049. The 1965 recording made its first appearance on the 1997 compilation Farewells and Fantasies (Rhino Records # R2 73518), and then The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings # 40129 P), released in 2000. In the first section, Ochs recalled the failure of the French in the First Indo-China War, the splitting of Vietnam into the 'North' and 'South', and Ngo Dinh Diem becoming the president of South Vietnam: "over the ruins of the French...the country was split...Ngo Dinh diem was the puppet". Ochs then turned to the escalation of the US war, even though the "finest Washington minds" assured the opposite. Ochs ended the song be condemning the actions of the US government in Vietnam: "the evil is done...a world...will always remember".Sources1presidentialrhetoric.com: Johnson lyndon↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Over the ruins of the French fortress of a failure / Over the silent screams of the dead and the dying / Saying please be reassured, we seek no wider war / The treaties were signed, the country was split into sections... / Ngo Dinh diem was the puppet who danced for the power / Machine gun bullets became the bloody baptizers / And the falcon copters don't care if someone's the wiser... / And fires were spitting at forests in defoliation / While the people were pressed into camps not called concentration / And the greater the victory the greater the shame of the nation... / As the finest Washington minds found slogans for slaughter / But the shattered schools never learned that it's not escalation / But please be reassured, we seek no wider war / And the evil is done in hopes that evil surrenders / But the deeds of the devil are burned too deep in the embers / And a world of hunger in vengeance will always remember / So please be reassured, we seek no wider war

About the artist

Phil Ochs, a leading protest / topical singer, born 19 December 1940 in El Paso, Texas, USA, and died on 9 April 1976, in Far Rockaway, New York, USA. He often played songs at anti-war and civil rights rallies in the 1960s and early 1970s, including outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968. He released many anti-Vietnam War songs during the era, which included "Talking Vietnam", one of the first Vietnam songs released, on his 1964 album All the News That's Fit to Sing. Other prominent songs included "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "Draft Dodger Rag", and "Days of Decision" on I Ain't…

Themes

Anti-War · LBJ · Diem · First Indo-China War

In collections

Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Phil Ochs