We Seek No Wider War
2000 · Smithsonian Folkways 40129 P · Washington D.C., District of Columbia
- Artist
- Phil Ochs
- Title
- We Seek No Wider War
- Release
- The Best of Broadside 1962-1988
- Year
- 2000
- Label
- Smithsonian Folkways # 40129 P
- Format
- CD · Archival
- Language
- English
- Country
- Washington D.C., District of Columbia, USA
- Songwriter
- Phil Ochs
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-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…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
born 19 December 1940 in El Paso, Texas, USA, and died on 9 April 1976, in Far Rockaway, New York, USA
Themes
Anti-War · LBJ · Diem · First Indo-China War