In the third week of March, a video circulated on social media ‘on behalf of the women of Iran’ contained a song titled ‘Hey America! Hey Israel!’ with lyrics that went as follows:“Hey America, keep your bombs to yourselfStay away from our land, this is our homelandAnd our freedom belongs in our own handsWe don’t want your democratic bombsTake your poison, take your filth, and get out.”The song emerged around June 2025 as a viral protest anthem against American and Israeli foreign policy in West Asia, specifically within the context of Iranian protests from 2022, where women played a huge part in resistance against the regime. The song was not identified with any specific person or group. It also became known an example of a hugely successful protest song that was AI-generated. It was circulated through social media activist networks, and was one which could respond to events with appropriate lyrics as they unfolded. The lyrics of the song in a sense sum up the politics of the current conjuncture, opposing American-Israeli aggression which is being called a war of liberation waged on behalf of the Iranian people, justified by the fact that they have been protesting conditions in their own country. In a sense, the song also symbolises the vastly different conditions of production and circulation of campaign material in an era where the global anti-war movement, as it emerged during and after the World War II, has become fragmented and has largely dissipated.In the post-World War II world, there have been several wars waged by the US, beginning with the Vietnam War in the 1955-75 period, the two Gulf wars against Iraq in 1990 and 2003, against Afghanistan from 2001 onwards, against Libya in 2011 and several other military actions, where the narrative has been similar. Music and musicians have played an important role in protesting these wars, even if the most extensive repertoires that are known are from the Vietnam war. In the period from 1969 to 1975, vast repertoires of music got created and performed protesting the Vietnam war. In America itself, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and several others, wrote and sang songs that became iconic as anti-war anthems. Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, Pete Seeger’s ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’ and ‘Bring ‘Em Back Home’, Joan Baez’s 1973 album ‘ Where Are You Now, My Son’ and the song ‘Saigon Bride’ are some examples. The Woodstock Festival, held over three days in August 1969, brought together more than 400,000 people and was dedicated to ‘Peace and Music’, featuring many of the musicians who were protesting the Vietnam war. However, while this part of the history of anti-war music is known, less is known about the music that came out of Vietnam itself in that period. One of the singers/songwriters from Vietnam whose anti-war music became highly influential among young people, particularly students, in the country, was Trịnh Công Sơn. He wrote a large number of songs against the war, which also came to be known as a formal music genre, Trinh music, in Vietnam. “Ca Dao Mẹ” (“A Mother’s Lullaby”) became one of his most well known songs.Khánh Ly, who sang Trinh’s “Ca Dao Me” song with him playing the guitar, in turn also sang her own anti-war song ‘Ru Ta Ngậm Ngùi – (“Live in Quán Văn”) in 1975.Văn Dung, another songwriter, wrote a song “Đường Trường Sơn xe anh qua” (“The Truong Son Road Your Vehicles Passed Through”), about women volunteers working on the Ho Chi Minh trail, an extensive system of paths and trails used by North Vietnam to bring troops and supplies into South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the war. To be continued. ♫Sumangala Damodaran is with the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs).