Viet Nam

I thought the song at the end tied this movie in a way to what was going on in the country at the time, 1971, at the height of the Viet Nam War. There was a theme in the movie of the corruption of the military, of the suffering brought by war, and of military lying about what they had done. The scene of his torching the haystacks was very much like the much-played video at that time of GI's casually burning people's houses with their cigarette lighters. The scenes of combat shown were like what was shown on the news every night. He threatened that he would lead the Yankee encampment to the plantation, and then there would be mass rape of all the women and girls, which was something that went on in Viet Nam routinely, according to my brother-in-law who was a combat marine there.
The song's words had to do with how it's a bad idea to become a soldier, the kind of song one heard at protest gatherings all the time.
I don't mean this is an anti-Viet Nam movie, but just that it touched on that issue and those feelings of the time it came out.