“The ‘First Television War’ was also documented in over 5,000 songs. From protest to patriotism, popular music reveals the complexity of America’s two-decade long experience struggling against communism in Vietnam.”
US helicopter spraying Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
by Justin Brummer
“In 1963, an obscure Louisiana-based country singer called Bob Necaise released ‘Mr. Where is Viet-Nam’. It was the first record made in the United States to allude to the Vietnam War in its title and highlighted that, according to opinion polls, most Americans paid little or no attention to the developing conflict in Indochina, which would consume their nation for 20 years. In December 1961, under President John F. Kennedy, the US had 3,205 military personnel stationed in Vietnam. This number increased to over 16,000 by the end of 1963 and the conflict began to receive more media coverage. In Necaise’s song, Lil Gary Dee, a ‘little boy not yet four years old’, asks:
Mister where is Vietnam?
Is it very far away?
I want to see my daddy
Will you take me there today?
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This Country Joe McDonald classic is emblazoned in our memory: