Written by Tom T. Hall and recorded by Johnnie Wright. It spent twenty weeks on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart with three weeks at # 1. The single, with backing vocals from Wright's wife, Kitty Wells, was Wright's most successful release on the U.S. country music chart as a solo singer. His singing partner from Johnnie and Jack, Jack Anglin, was killed in a car accident in March 1963.
The song came at a time when war protest songs dominated pop music charts and when public support for the war eroded.