Back to Vietnam

He wakes up screaming
He wakes up screaming
He wakes up

He wakes up in a cold sweat
He dreams he'll to get a letter in the post
Telling him he's been called up again (again, again)
They're calling back the national guard
They're calling back the national guard
They'll send him back
Send him back
Back to Vietnam
Back to Vietnam

He's running in the jungle
He's running with a bayonet
With a machine gun
And he's wild on speed

The enemy
He can't see them
But he knows they're there
He's aware
And all around him
He hears gunfire
He's caught on fire
He's so frightened
He wakes up
Screaming
He wakes up
Screaming

He dreads the day
A letter in the post
Telling him they're calling back out the national guard

They'll send him back
Send him back
Send him back
Back to Vietnam

They're bringing back
Conscription
They'll give anyone over seventeen a gun

And the housewife
In her kitchen
All she can think of
Is what to give her husband for tea
But he won't be back

Do we have to go through it all again?
Do we have to go through it all again?

In the jungle
He knows the enemy's there
And he's frightened
Cause they might send him back
Again

It's all the same: Vietnam, North Korea
First World War, Venezuela
Argentina, Falkland Islands
Another war, what's it for?
Another war, what's it for?
Another war, what's it for?
Another war, what's it for?

Now he's in a home
For Vietnam
Refugees
He's frightened
He's scared
He's in an institution (he's a gun)
He's in a wheelchair (he's a machine)
He's in a wheelchair (he's a machine)
(A machine gun)
He's frightened
He's running wild
Give him more some LSD
Give him more some speed
Get him more some LSD
War is the last creative act

I thought we might've learned some lesson
I thought we might've learned some lesson

Richard Nixon on Channel Eleven
I heard it first
Happy birthday, happy Christmas
Guns go bang bang

"I don't look at tree lines and see 'em exploding anymore
I don't lash on-- taking people out
And I was doing that, I'm-- it's crazy, I know
But that's where my head was. That's over
And I'm really calm and relaxed about that stuff
And that's-- #1, that's a tremendous thing."