God Bless America Girl Scouts in New York City. Smith performed the song on her two NBC television series in the 1950s and in her short-lived "The Kate Smith Show" on CBS, which aired from January 25 to July 18, 1960. "God Bless America" also spawned another of Irving Berlin's tunes, "Heaven Watch The Philippines," during the end of World War II after he heard the Filipinos sing a slightly revised version of the song replacing "America" with "The Philippines." The song was used early in the Civil Rights Movement as well as at labor rallies. During the 1960s, the song was increasingly
God Bless the U.S.A. Bless the U.S.A." in response to his feelings about the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007. He said that he "wanted to write it my whole life. When I got to that point, we were doing 300 days a year on the road, and we were on our fourth or fifth album on MCA. I called my producer, and I said I have a need to do this. I've always wanted to write a song about America, and I said we just need to be more united." As for writing the song itself, Greenwood wrote that it more