Merle Haggard’s famous look at reactionary attitudes towards the 1960’s counterculture. Its rather paternalistic attitude towards things led to a rebuttal by country artist Kinky Friedman, in his song “Asshole from El Paso”. Both songs have become country standards in their own right.

Haggard explained the song’s meaning in a recent interview:

During Vietnam, there were all kinds of protests. Here were these [servicemen] going over there and dying for a cause…And here are these young kids, that were free, bitching about it. There’s something wrong with that and with [disparaging] those poor guys…I wrote the song to support those soldiers.