Song Analysis: God Please Protect America By Jimmie Osborne

Improved Essays
“God Please Protect America” was written by Jimmie Osborne on July 26,1950. The song was recorded the day after the Korean war began on July 25,1950. The war took place right after all of the distress of both World Wars and the Civil War. “God Please Protect America” was written as a depthful plea during this difficult time for all.
On the morning of June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded the South with “advanced units of the 135,00 soldiers of the North Korean army” (McGowen,10). The South was unprepared and unequipped. They lacked Combat artillery, tanks, and some field artillery (Hickey,1). The United States considered itself responsible for South Korea after their policy of containment.
The United States was outraged over the invasion. American
…show more content…
“Oh people let 's start prayin ', as we never prayed before.” (Osborne). This verse of the song describes how desperate they were for help. They truly did not want to be in the war and put all of their faith into God. Surprisingly, this song is very religious. The song says they give their fate in the hands of God and want him to lead them through.. “We need the hand of God, to lead us through this war” (Osbourne). The citizens knew they could not change the outcome of the destiny of the war but, they gave it to God who …show more content…
This song also portrays how society feels during the war. They feel the pressure of the Southern border and the pressure of the soldiers to fight for the South and America for the greater good of all. It shows them praying that nothing bad or destructive will happen to them, their families, or their country. The Americans did not want this war and were frightful all the way through it.
Overall, the song “God Please Protect America” accurately represents the Korean War and how the Americans felt during it. It conveys the main theme in America at the time, fright and hope that nothing bad would happen. This song shows us how much Americans were “anti-war” at the time (Brady). Their plea, “God Please Protect America” during the hardships of the war was heard by many and not mistaken. It was a memorable time then but is now overlooked. The “forgotten war” was not forgotten by the people that witnessed and survived

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Cold War Impact

    • 2553 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The military forces was too strong and the Americans had no other choice but to return back to South Korea. The Korean War ended up being a conflict that affected many globally. The conclusion of the war caused Americans to become allies with Japan. We helped them majorly economically with American aid. A perimeter was established to defend communism in East Asia.…

    • 2553 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A counter cultural group the Yippies took imaginative action, raided offices of draft boards, and Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, also spoke against the war. Other non-violent action such as blockades of roads and streets became common. The Tet offensive conducted by North Vietnam on January 30, 1968 shocked the American public. It can be said that the Tet offensive was a turning point in the war because it influenced the American public who realized that the entire war was senseless and there was no strategy to end the war. The Tet offensive occurred around the same time that the government considered General Westmoreland’s request for 206,000 additional troops.…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After World War II, Japan no longer controlled Korea. The Soviet Union controlled the area north of the 38th parallel and the U.S. administered the area to the south. By 1948 they became two separate nations, the Communist North Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the south. In June of 1950 the Korean War began when the North Korean troops invaded South Korea. The South Korean army was not strong enough to repel the…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Korean War created more American opposition of communism, which the Soviet Union supported strongly. Americans did not like to send their troops to another war, especially not long after World War II ended, and lose more men overseas. China’s newfound communist government did not help in lessening American opposition to the government after the Korean War. It was after this war that the U.S. policies started to become a stronger anticommunist form. The United States found Soviet Union’s spread of communist threatening, and very closely resembling those of Hitler’s.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The young men and women took the risk of going to war because it was their international duty and it was what the Motherland had asked of them. The soldiers saw this opportunity as an honorable task that would benefit them in the end. But instead, civilians called it a ‘dirty war’ and a ‘political mistake’ (Alexievich 160). The young men and women have took the risk of going to Afghanistan for their nation and instead of being greeted with honor and respect, civilians and the state have turned their…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    God cannot pick a side until the end, and even then He must pick the side which is morally correct. In the last words of his speech, President Lincoln sums up the only way to fix the nation and make it mighty again. The people had to stop their hatred and be kind to each other, God has led them in the right direction. In order to mend the nation’s wounds the North must care for the wounded South and vise versa. The people of the nation must come together and care for each other, “...-to do all which may…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Paine also utilizes emotional appeals in his persuasive effort. He explains that the war is unavoidable if we seek happiness in America. “If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace,” draws on the emotions of parents, persuading them to join the war effort and save their family (The Crisis, Number 1). The colonists were fed up with the oppressive treatment by England, and emotions were running high; however, convincing colonists to join a treasonous cause was still no easy feat. Patrick Henry use of pathos made his speeches influential.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    North Korean War Effects

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    So the Korean country could be united again under one form of government, this turned out to be a failure. The Soviet Union prohibited the United Nations supervised elections that were on South Korea and there was no control of the elections in North Korea by the United Nations. In a result, on May 10, 1948 the South elected Syngman Rhee as president establishing the Republic of Korea. North Korea on the other hand elected Kim II-Sung as prime minister, thus declared the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. As a result this created North Korea permanently communist and South Korea pro-western state which made two separate states to establish (Richards,…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The shift from desiring a “unified democratic Korea” to a free south Korea, demonstrated a drastic change in American foreign policy. While America believed they were winning in Korea, they held onto their hopes for unifying Korea; however, as things started to look more grim, they shifted their ideology to remain victorious even in the face of failure. Being the hero of the Second World War, America was viewed as powerful and a force to be reckoned with, losing a war to such a small country, experiencing turmoil, would ruin America 's reputation. Therefore they needed to find a way they could avoid loss at all costs; however, Truman was unwilling to meet MacArthur 's requests for total warfare in Korea so, instead of contributing further into the war effort, Truman changed his policy to favour the containment of the status quo before the war in Korea. Once America achieved this goal by recapturing Seoul, the capital of South Korea, they began to negotiate an armistice with North Korea, under the guidance of Mao Zedong, allowing the end of the war, without it being viewed as a loss in other 'free ' nations.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Korean peninsula was originally occupied by Japan from as early as 1910 (Wikipedia, 2016). In 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and encroached on Korea (Wikipedia, 2016). The United States became wary of the Soviet Union taking over all of Korea and asked that operations be limited to the northern peninsula, which left the southern peninsula free for United States militia to occupy (Wikipedia, 2016). During the Cold War, North Korea copied a system of government similar to that of the Soviet Union (Wikipedia, 2016). For fear that the Soviet Union would try to do the same in the south, the United States formed the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) in 1947 (Wikipedia, 2016).…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays