TITLE: Songs of Saigon (Songs That Pacify), Second Edition

AUTHOR/COMPILER: General Thomas Bowen (101st Airborne)

BRANCH OF SERVICE: Army, civilian

UNIT/AGENCY: Special Forces, MACV, CORDS, USIAD, CIA, Foreign Service

DATE: 1963-1965

PLACE: The collection appears to have compiled in Saigon. The songs were composed at various locations.

SOURCE: General Bowen

I also received a copy from George MacGarrigle, Center of Military History, Department of the Army. He got it from Lt. Col. Mary Frank, who reported that these songs were sung at hospitals in the Saigon area during the war.

NOTE: A mimeographed collection of twenty songs collected or composed by General Bowen and colleagues during his 1963-1965 tour in Vietnam. Some of these songs are from musical productions presented in the bar of the Rex Hotel.

These songs, which appear to have been additions (they are tacked on to the end of my copy of the first edition and are in a different type face), have been omitted from the second edition of Songs of Saigon:

Self Defence Maiden

Our Forces Are Advancing

These songs have been added:

MACV Fight Song

Sorry About That

We Gotta Have Kahn

MACV Fight Song #2

MACV Marching Song

Twas Coup Day

Don't Take My Counterpart Away

Songs marked with one asterisk (*) are identical to songs of the same title in the Cosmos Command edition of Songs of Saigon . Songs marked with two asterisks (**) are variants.

CONTENTS:

1. Arrivederci Saigon*

Tune: Arrivederci Roma

2. The Longest Year*

3. We Are Winning *

Tune: Rock of Ages

4. [Landlord Fill That Nuoc Mam Bowl]*

Tune: Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl

5. [I Met A Girl in Old Saigon]*

Tune: Sioux City Sue

6. Ghost Advisors By and By*

Tune: Ghost Riders

7. Ghost Advisors (Embassy's Cleaned-Up Version)

Tune: Ghost Riders

8. The Yellow Rose of Saigon (Pre-Coup)*

9. Strategic Hamlet Song [Please Fence Me In]

Tune: Don't Fence Me In

10. The Streets of Saigon (Coup Time)*

Tune: Streets of Loredo

11. I've Stayed Too Long

Tune: I Wonder Why

12. MACV Fight Song [Let's Fight On For COMUS MACV]*

Tune: Notre Dame Fight Song

13. Let's Do It (Saigon Version, 1964, end January)*

Tune: Let's Do It

14. Sorry About That

Tune: Ghost Riders

15. Those Viet Cong Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine

Tune: Those Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine

16. We Gotta Have Kanh

Tune: You Gotta Have Heart

17. MACV Fight Song #2 [Buckle Down, Westmoreland, Buckle Down]*

Tune: "Winsocke Tune"

18. MACV Marching Song [Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Montagnards at Play]**

Tune: Battle Hymn of the Republic

Note: Two stanzas, also found in Cosmos Command version, different refrain

19. 'Twas Coup Day*

Note: Parody of "'Twas the Night before Christmas"

20. Don't Take My Counterpart Away*

Tune: You Are My Sunshine

NOTES UPDATED: 11 April 2025