The Letter- Hello Vietnam

It just happened to be when you turned 18 At the height of the war, Vietnam The letter for you from a relative you never knew By the name of Uncle Sam Requesting you join him for a party You and a few of your friends Ooh La La here comes Paris Island life you would live to regret Where they turned your school boy fantasies Into that of nightmares for men In the confines of time you never dreamed you would find The thoughts that now crisscross through your head Then came the news, they picked you for a cruise The last time you slept in your warm bed On the very same day you packed it all away Including what little sanity you have left Here you were promised the tropics There is where reality set in Instead of the fancy sweet umbrella drink They placed a cold gun in your hand It came with a set of instructions In black & white kill the yellow man Where democracy rules, communism's for fools As you share this for your Uncle Sam You spent all of your time in the jungle Battling those they told you to hate Going to sleep at night in hopes that you might Wake up to at least one more day When they finally told you it was over With fewer friends and far less of a man You'll remember the names as they call from the graves On the hillside of war, Vietnam Back home to the sweet taste of freedom Not quite the same as when you first packed your bags Now they spit on you for what your Uncle put you through You have to wonder what is the sense in that The colorful world in which you once lived Remains to this day a deep shade of gray And all of this because you happened to get That letter on your 18th birthday