Jubilee, 1999
by DCDave

A "Made in California" play
Is all the world can see.
Because ‘tis fifty years today
That NATO came to be.

We'd render Clio's tempests still
With all the plans we made,
Then how can we explain the bill
That with young lives we've paid?

In truth they've lately suffered far
From mother country's shore,
But seeing where our warplanes are,
That pattern holds no more.

With SEATO after Panmunjon
We made the world behave.
Now many fine young men are gone,
Themselves they could not save.

Against the communistic plague
We sent them off to war
Where the goals were not too vague
For them to perish for.

"Hold back the reds," our leaders cried,
And their cries were heard,
And many of our best have died
Who doubted not their word.

So now we've held them, why can't we
Play the optimist?
Because a big bureaucracy
Needs reasons to exist.

David Martin