((Timing of song: 0:35-1:04))
About song: This song illustrates the anger the soldiers in Vietnam and the citizens of America feel against the government. While these boys go off and fight in this unwinnable war, the men orchestrating the entire event never come close to the battlefield and the couldn't possibly know the pain and suffering that goes on overseas.
Lyrics: Come you masters of war/You that build the big guns/You that build the death planes/You that build all the bombs/You that hide behind walls/You that hide behind desks/I just want you to know/I can read through your masks.
You that never done nothin'/But build to destroy/You play with my world/Like it's your little toy/You put a gun in my hand/And you hide from my eyes/And you turn and run farther/When the fast bullets fly.
Like Judas of old/You lie and deceive/A world war can be won/You want me to believe/But I see through your eyes/And I see through your brain/Like I see through the water/That runs down my drain.
You've thrown the worst fear/That can ever be hurled/Fear to bring children/Into the world/For threatening my baby/Unborn and unnamed/You ain't worth the blood/That runs in your veins.
And I hope that you die/And your death'll come soon/I will follow your casket/In the pale afternoon/And I'll watch while you're lowered/Down to your deathbed/And I'll stand over your grave/'Til I'm sure that you're dead.
((You fasten all the triggers/For the others to fire/Then you set back and watch/When the death count gets higher/You hide in your mansion'/As young people's blood/Flows out of their bodies/And is buried in the mud.))
((How much do I know/To talk out of turn/You might say that I'm young/You might say I'm unlearned/But there's one thing I know/Though I'm younger than you/That even Jesus would never/Forgive what you do.))
((Let me ask you one question/Is your money that good/Will it buy you forgiveness/Do you think that it could/I think you will find/When your death takes its toll/All the money you made/Will never buy back your soul.))
Analysis: The feelings of the soldiers fighting in Vietnam toward are evident in the lines "You that never done nothin'/ but build to destroy." They are upset that the ones controlling the war do nothing for the war except create more weapons and more death. The lines "You play with my world/Like it's your little toy" illustrate the simile that the men orchestrating the war never have to firsthand understand the pain and suffering that the soldiers face, they just strategize and tell the soldiers what to do from the safety of their desks. The last lines, "You put a gun in my hand/And you hide from my eyes/And you turn and run farther/When the fast bullets fly" also demostrate the previous analysis by adding the fact that the government officials stay as far away from the actual fighting as possible, yet throw young men into the war as if they were dispensable.