Freedom’s Just Another Word

Warriors Publishing Group
3 min readOct 2, 2024

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by Doug Bradley

…for a guy like Kris Kristofferson. Already, there has been a tsunami of tributes and homages about him, his illustrious career, his iconic songs, Hollywood movies, and more. And rightfully so. But my most indelible Kris Kristofferson memory is of him having the courage to reconsider, and eventually change, his position on the U.S. war in Vietnam.

And the former Captain Kristofferson did that the old-fashioned way — by listening, by caring about what his Army brothers and sisters were experiencing in Vietnam. By letting them talk. By trying his best to understand what the war was really like, and what it did to his fellow soldiers.

That wasn’t that easy, or simple, for an all-American boy like Kris who was a Golden Gloves boxer, award-winning writer and editor, Rhodes Scholar, and patriot. “I grew up in a time when people believed in duty, honor, and country,” he openly admitted. “My grandfathers were both military officers. My father was a General in the Air Force…” Meaning Kris and his brother would both enlist, take the oath. Serve their country.

Along the way the duty/honor/country Kristofferson encountered a group of anti-war protesters in Washington D.C. in 1966 while he was awaiting his own orders to Vietnam (they never came). He was irritated enough by what he saw that he wrote an irate, spoken-word, pro-war song about the confrontation entitled “Vietnam Blues.” You feel the resentment in lines like

It wasn’t too long till I was feelin’ downright sick

Another held the sign that said we won’t fight

I thought to myself boy ain’t that right

To leave a lot of our soldiers die instead

And you can actually hear the anger in the recording of the song by country artist Dave Dudley, especially when he growls

I said it’s a shame that every man who ever died up there that far off land

Was dyin’ for that you wouldn’t have to wake up dead

In “Vietnam Blues,” Kris Kristofferson drew his own line in the sand. We all knew which side he was on. But as he listened to the stories of returning vets, felt their pain, sensed their trauma, he began to feel differently. Eventually, he disavowed the politics of “Vietnam Blues” and became ardently anti-war.

And bigger than life, too, but that’s another story. What’s essential for me is that Kristofferson knew what he didn’t know, reached out and talked to people who’d experienced the ugliness and brutality of Vietnam and decided he didn’t want any more of his fellow countrymen to have to endure that. Like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Kristofferson believed you could support the soldier but not the war.

And later, even after all the Grammys and acting awards and notoriety, Kris walked the talk. He was involved in numerous initiatives and organizations that supported veterans and their families; performed at many events and benefit concerts for veterans; and advocated for veterans’ issues, including health care and education benefits. He also spoke openly about his own struggles with PTSD.

Find a recording of Kris Kristofferson singing his brilliant song “Me and Bobby McGee.” It’s different than the Janis Joplin version. Slower, methodical, heavier, trying to find its way. Picture the old Army captain from “Vietnam Blues” who’s seen it all, the good, and bad…and had a change of heart.

And realize that only a veteran could know the real truth of the line “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Amen to that. RIP Brother Kristofferson.

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Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley is the author of Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America, co-author with Craig Werner of We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, which was named best music book of 2015 by Rolling Stone magazine, and DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle, now available as an audiobook. His music-based memoir, The Tracks of My Years, will be released by Legacy Book Press in 2025.

Photo credit: Magna Artists, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kristofferson_-_78.jpg

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Warriors Publishing Group
Warriors Publishing Group

Written by Warriors Publishing Group

Providing the best in military fiction and nonfiction books; entertainment and insight into the missions, motivations, and mentality of the military mind.

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