The Vietnam Anti-war Movement

David Bowie’s song Running Gun Blues from 1970 is about the horror of shooting Vietnamese soldiers and how it leaves a feeling in soldiers to shoot and kill even more. This feeling is exemplified in the lines, “I slash them cold, I kill them dead. I broke the gooks, I cracked their heads. I'll bomb them out from under the beds, but now I've got the running gun blues.” David Bowie gives an anti-war statement through this song by using intense, descriptive lyrics about shooting and killing those around him and watching his fellow soldiers die around him. This song could be an example of a soldier dealing with PTSD after returning to the war, as he writes, “It seems the peacefuls stopped the war, left generals squashed and stifled, but I'll slip out again tonight cause they haven't taken back my rifle, for I promote oblivion and I'll plug a few civilians.”