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Mar 14th 2013!⃝I always thought the song was making a reference to the confusion and chaos the soldiers encountered when they arrived in Vietnam. The first inclination on the part of many soldiers was to run--not that they were cowards--but this was a kind of confrontation for which they were ill prepared to say the least, and, soldiers who cannot see the enemy, in an effort to preserve their lives, should run. Fogerty's reference to North Vietnamese or Viet Cong armies as Satan certainly creates an appropriate analogy...or, perhaps the analogy is meant to illustrate the idea that war often brings out the evil inherent in any person cast into a situation such as this one--American troops were also guilty of committing atrocities. In any regard, the song very effectively captures the confusion of the experience from the dischordant opening screeches to the consistency of the guitar riff and moaning harmonica. The over all sound of the song, in conjunction with the growling lyrics, simultaneously conjure fear, confusion, and chaos against a backdrop of what was argued at the time to be a straightforward military exercise that would certainly result in a quick victory. I would argue one of the more intriguing songs about the war in Vietnam.
