'Bring 'em Home'
Musical artist Pete Seeger wrote a
song called ‘Bring ‘em Home’ in 1966 and released the song on his album in
1969. He wrote this song in response to America’s involvement in the Vietnam
War. Throughout the song he implies that it is the generals that want to go to
war to ‘test their weaponry’. In addition, he implies that the world could
fight more things than war, like hunger. Seeger also states that if you love
your ‘Uncle Sam’ (the U.S government) and support the troops then you would want them brought
home from Vietnam. He goes on further to state that he is not a pacifist and
that he would be on ‘the front line’ if America was invaded. Moreover, every
other line contains the words ‘bring ‘em home’ to really ingrain the message of
the song to the audience which is to bring the troops home from Vietnam. [1] All
the messages Seeger puts across imply that he does not think that American
involvement in the Vietnam War is right and that it is not good for the United
States and that the army generals just want to go to war, there is no good reasoning
behind it.
This song reflects the time period
in which it was written and released. In 1966 and 1969 there was much protest
against American involvement against the Vietnam War. Many believed America
should not be involved in a foreign civil war, some opposed to the war for
moral reasons and some thought the money spent on war could be spent on the
poor. Many protests took place which gained more support when US brutality in
the war was exposed. The protest reached its peak in 1968 when a Tet offensive
by northern Vietnamese troops confirmed that the end of war was nowhere near.
The protesters blamed many people for the involvement in the Vietnam War but
the army generals did take much of that blame. This is reflected in this song
as Seeger places heavy blame on the army generals. Seeger puts across the
public opinion in his song. There were many people like Pete Seeger creating
songs and trying to spread their opinion of the US involvement in the Vietnam
War in order to put a stop to it.
[1] Pete Seeger, Bring Them Home, Youtube,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4-w2FYIJbw , (accessed 22nd November 2017)
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