God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen: A Christmas Galley for Civil Rights

Among the many Galleys in Bennington’s archival collection, one occasionally discovers a peculiar and particularly interesting release among the mass of event announcements, open letter opinion pieces and commentary on campus politics. This is the case with “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” an anonymous work released in December 1967 which, structured as a parody of the classic Christmas song, tackles a number of hot button issues of the day. It opens by announcing its title in an offbeat fashion typical of Bennington student art projects:

“GOD, REST YE MERRY GENTLEMEN or GOD REST, YE MERRY GENTLEMEN or GOD REST YE, MERRY GENTLEMAN or GOD REST YE MERRY, GENTLEMEN”  

The first verse is a skewering of the United States’ involvement in the Cold War and nuclear arms race. 

“God rest ye merry gentlemen 

Sleep easy in your beds 

The planes all loaded with the bomb, are flying overhead. 

They're going to kill the Russians 

When the rest of us are dead !”

The piece then pivots to the subject of police brutality against demonstrators.

“God rest ye merry gentlemen 

Sleep easy in your beds, 

They now have dogs that snarl and jump 

At demonstrators' heads -- 

They often leave them bloody, 

But they seldom leave them dead.”

In late 1967, civil unrest was beginning to come to a head in multiple different movements including the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War efforts. The following year, there would be several major clashes between protesters and police, including riots in Washington DC, Chicago and over 100 other cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr as well as protests that broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Concurrently, there was an escalation of violent tactics used by police in efforts to suppress the protests including the use of dogs as mentioned in the Galley.

The following two verses once again take aim at the arms race and Cold War, as well as the United States continued involvement in the war in Vietnam.

“In Bethlehem so long ago

Upon that blessed morn,

King Herod killed the infants,

For he thought they him did him scorn

Now radiation kills the babes

Before they're even born.

God rest ye merry gentlemen, 

Let's all be at our ease 

You know our bombs will save us

From the terrible Chinese

 Before we ever compromise 

We'll kill each Vietnamese.”

The story of King Herod, who in the Gospel of Matthew was responsible for the slaughtering of male infants known as the Massacre of Innocents is here compared to the deaths of fetuses in the womb from radiation poisoning. Anxieties about the potential consequences of nuclear fallout were understandably widespread at the time, as the results of the WWII bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the later fallout from nuclear testing in the South Pacific Sea were well documented and widely known. Additionally, although they are not radioactive, it is very possible that America’s use of Agent Orange and Napalm in Vietnam was present in the mind of the author as they wrote these verses. Agent Orange in particular is known for causing congenital disorders.

The Galley finishes off by bringing back the theme of civil rights and tying it with the Vietnam War.

“God rest ye merry gentlemen, 

We know you will sleep tight; 

They cannot vote in Alabam'

Because they are not white. 

They shall not vote in Viet Nam 

Because they won't vote right.”

In addition to occurring at the same time, the antiwar movement and civil rights movement were inextricably linked with each other as Black Americans were more likely to be targeted by the draft than any other racial group. Thanks to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s “Project 100,000,” hundreds of thousands of civilians previously deemed unfit due to physical or mental reasons were drafted into the war, 40% of whom were black. According to Time Magazine, “Black soldiers made up 16.3% of those drafted and 23% of Vietnam combat troops, despite accounting for only roughly 11% of the civilian population.” As the war continued, the civil rights movement increasingly combined with the antiwar movement into a joint effort. In 1968, McNamara would resign from his position as Defense Secretary, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most infamous warmongers in American history.

It is unclear what impact this musical galley subsequently had on United States foreign and domestic policy.

- Margalit Duclayan ‘25