The lullaby's promises of safety are contradicted by its missiles, military alliances, and uneasy memories of war. Deliberate slips of the tongue turn reassurance into alarm. The four printed stanzas are complete; these are Cold War-era satirical words, not a description of current defense arrangements.
Sleep, baby, sleep, in peace may you slumber,
No danger lurks, your sleep to encumber.
We've got the missiles, peace to determine,
And one of the fingers on the button will be German.
Why shouldn't they have nuclear warheads?
England says no, but they all are soreheads.
I say a bygone should be a bygone,
Let's make peace the way we did in
Stanleyville and Saigon.
Once all the Germans were warlike and mean,
But that couldn't happen again.
We taught them a lesson in 1918
And they've hardly bothered us since then.
So, sleep well, my darling, the sandman can linger.
We know our buddies won't give us the finger.
Heil - hail - the Wehrmacht ---
I mean the Bundeswehr ---
Hail to our loyal ally!
M.L.F.
Will scare Brezhnev.
I hope he is half as scared as I!