Le déserteur is a famous anti-war song written by Boris Vian and released on May 7, 1954 during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
It was first sung by Marcel Mouloudji, in 1954. Subsequently, it was forbidden by the French censorship to be sold or broadcasted until 1962. It was later translated into English, Italian (by Luigi Tenco, Ornella Vanoni and Ivano Fossati), Spanish, Swedish ("Jag står här på ett torg" - Lars Forsell), Catalan and Danish and then many other languages. It was a major Anti-war song by Joan Baez during the Vietnam war.
The song is in the form of a letter written to the French President by a man who states that he's going to refuse his call to arms, turning deserter, and explains his reasons to do so.
In the late 1970s, the song was covered by nuclear protesters in Brittany, as a direct apostrophe to the fierce pro-nuclear French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in the Plogoff's struggle.