I was rewriting my Phil Ochs book when I came across this song that I had just described. It is about the Vietnam War. I couldn’t but look at what the Israelis were saying about the bombing of Gaza. They too seek no wider war. They are not bombing civilians; they are killing Hamas.
We Seek No Wider War (Home Tape) – YouTube
We Seek No Wider War (Phil Ochs)
A home recording. Phil uses Lyndon Johnson’s own words from the Gulf Tonkin Resolution on 4th August 1964 to ridicule the whole venture. The whole carnage of the Vietnam War was based on this. Phil was sceptical. He recorded this using a twelve string guitar on a home tape recorder. The lyrics are scathing: ‘Over the ruins of the French fortress of a failure. Over the silent screams of the dead and the dying. Saying please be reassured, we seek no wider war.’