"Still in Saigon", is a song written by Dan Daley and performed by the Charlie Daniels Band

Charlie Daniels

Charles Edward "Charlie" Daniels is an American musician known for his contributions to country and southern rock music. He is known primarily for his number one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and multiple other songs he has performed and written. Daniels has been active as a singer...

 and released on their 1982 album Windows

Windows (Charlie Daniels album)

Windows was a southern rock and country album released by the Charlie Daniels Band on March 5, 1982.-Track listing:# "Still in Saigon" 3:51# "Ain't No Ramblers Anymore" 3:55...

. It was written by Daley in May 1981.

The song is an effective portrayal of the plight of the American Vietnam veteran

Vietnam veteran

Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...

 ten years after the war; it was part of an early 1980s wave of attention to the subject, presaging treatments such as Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

's "Born in the U.S.A.

Born in the U.S.A. (song)

"Born in the U.S.A." is a 1984 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. Taken from the album of the same name, it is one of his best-known singles. Rolling Stone ranked the song 275th on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed...

" and "Shut Out the Light", Billy Joel

Billy Joel

William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...

's "Goodnight Saigon

Goodnight Saigon

"Goodnight Saigon" is a song written by Billy Joel, originally appearing on his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain, about the Vietnam War. It depicts the situation and attitude of United States Marines beginning with their military training on Parris Island and then into different aspects of Vietnam...

", Huey Lewis and the News

Huey Lewis and the News

Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...

' "Walking on a Thin Line", Paul Hardcastle

Paul Hardcastle

Paul Hardcastle is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.-Discography:In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo.He achieved some acclaim for...

's "19

19 (song)

"19" is a song by British musician Paul Hardcastle released as the first single from his self-titled third studio album Paul Hardcastle ....

" and somewhat later Steve Earle

Steve Earle

Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....

's "Copperhead Road

Copperhead Road

Copperhead Road is an American country music/country rock album released in 1988 by Steve Earle. Often referred to as Earle's first "rock record", Earle himself calls it the world's first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass, while in their January 26, 1989 review of the album Rolling Stone suggested...

".

Content

The story is told ten years after Daniels, as the protagonist, faced being drafted

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 into the Vietnam War. Though he could have escaped to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 as a war protester, or chosen to stay in school under a student deferment (either way avoiding being sent), believing he was "brought up differently/I couldn't break the rules" elected to go ahead and serve.

He remained in the military for "thirteen months and fifteen days", with the latter portion taking an emotional toll on Daniels ("one minute I'd kneel down and pray/The next I'd stand and curse"). The emotional problems only worsened upon his return, as he came home to a bitterly divided family – his war-protesting younger brother labels him a "killer" while his father calls him a "vet". Moreover, he began to exhibit signs of post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...

 (PTSD) resulting from his service (constantly looking behind doors for the enemy, and exhibiting flashback

Flashback (narrative)

Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...

s during the rainy summer season); symptoms which ten years later continue to plague him.

Chart performance

Chart (1979)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	22
U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks	2