Vietnow

The song Vietnow by Rage Against the Machine was released as the final single from their album Evil Empire. While officially considered the third single, the song Down Rodeo had limited promotional distribution only in the United States. The version of Vietnow was distributed in some European countries, such as France and the Netherlands, in October 1997.

The accompanying image for this single is a 1979 photograph, captured by Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide in the Sonoran Desert. The image, originally titled "Mujer Ángel" (Angel Woman), shows an elderly woman from behind, carrying a boombox and walking through a mountain. This photograph was also included in the black and white photography book Canto a la Realidad: Fotografia Latinoamericana, 1860-1993, compiled by Erika Billeter.

The lyrics of Vietnow address the theme of right-wing AM radio programs, mentioning figures such as Rush Limbaugh, Oliver North, and Michael Reagan. Some passages of the verse riffs are reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's "The Wanton Song," a band that Tom Morello has cited as a major influence. The lines "is all the world jails and churches" might be inspired by the work of American novelist James Baldwin, whose 1953 novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, includes a dialogue questioning whether the world is limited to "jails and churches." In fact, at least one of James Baldwin's books appears in the liner notes of the album Evil Empire. Another reference in the lyrics, "Comin down like bats from Stacey Koon," alludes to Sergeant Stacey Koon, one of the four LAPD officers who were recorded assaulting African-American driver Rodney King in 1992. Of the four involved, he and Laurence Powell were the only ones convicted. The song also references the CIA's involvement in sending Contras to Nicaragua to dismantle the Sandinista movement, with the line "Undressed and blessed by the lord, the same devil that ran around Managua with a sword." The band, composed of Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk, released this song with a duration of 4 minutes and 39 seconds, under the production of Brendan O'Brien and the label Epic Records. The album Evil Empire, from which Vietnow is taken, debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200. The song had its first live performance during the Big Day Out festival in Australia in 1996.