The song stood against the Vietnam War, but it never turned against the soldiers fighting there. That is crucial. Fogerty saw it differently. For him, just as for many CCR fans, the soldiers were mostly working class kids, people who ended up there not because they believed in it ideologically, but because they did not have the connections that would get them out of the line of fire. “Fortunate Son” defends exactly them. It denounces those who rig the game and stay safe far from the mud while others pay the bill.