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Agent Orange Song

By VVAW

Well, I was seventeen, a great big kid, the year that I enlisted
I can't recall just why I did, my mom says I insisted.
Well, I had some strange idea then that Uncle Sam was right,
Well, Momma cried, but she signed the card, and I went off to fight.

Got off the plane in Vietnam, it didn't seem like war:
With all I saw, I started wondering what we came there for,
The officers got drunk at night, cheated on their wives,
Those peasants on the other side were struggling for their lives.

You know, the army tried some fancy stuff to bring them to their knees,
Like Agent Orange defoliants to clear the brush and trees;
we'd fly all day above the trails through clouds of poison spray,
But they never said that chemical would hurt my health today.

CHORUS:
Because I got the news this morning,
The doctor told me so,
They killed me in Vietnam and I didn't even know.

I tried hard to forget that war like everybody else did,
I settled down with Kathy, we tried to have some kids.
But our little boy had birth defects, the doctors had their doubts.
They never guessed what caused it, but I thing I just found out.

This Agent Orange from Vietnam, we carry with us still,
It stays inside for years and years, it does its best to kill.
You might get cancer of the liver, might get cancer of the skin,
Might get a VA disability you might not live to win.

The doctor said I've got some time, he was trying to be kind,
You know, I've never been a radical, but this has changed my mind.
Now I'd be so proud to hear my sons say, "Hell, no, we won't go!
Because you killed our dad in Vietnam and he didn't even know.

Note: This song was based on the last words of Paul Ruetershan of Norwalk, Connecticut, who died of stomach cancer in December, 1978, ten years after his tour of duty as helicopter crewman in Vietnam. He was 27. The song reflects the experiences of many Vietnam vets and is not a strictly biographical account of Ruetershan's life. He spent his last days organizing and publicizing the cause of his fatal illness and his fighting spirit deserves commemoration.