"The Ballad of the Green Berets" is a patriotic song in the ballad style about the Green Berets, an elite special force in the U.S. Army. It is one of the few popular songs of the Vietnam War years to cast the military in a positive light and in 1966 became a major hit, reaching No. 1 for five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and four weeks on Cashbox. Ultimately, the song was named Billboard's #1 single for the year 1966. It was also a crossover smash, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart and No. 2 on Billboard's Country survey.

The song was written by Robin Moore and then Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler, while the latter was recuperating from a leg wound suffered as a medic in the Vietnam War. Moore also wrote a book, The Green Berets. The tune is borrowed from a traditional American folk song, "The Butcher Boy".

The lyrics were written in honor of Green Beret US Army Specialist 5 James Gabriel, Jr., the first native Hawaiian to die in Vietnam, who was killed by Viet Cong gunfire while on a training mission with the South Vietnamese Army on April 8, 1962. One verse mentioned Gabriel by name, but it was not used in the recorded version.

Sadler performed the song on television on January 30, 1966 on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The song was the No. 1 hit in the U.S. for the five weeks, spanning March 1966 and the No. 1 hit on the Cashbox end of the year chart for 1966; also the No. 21 song of the 1960s as ranked by Joel Whitburn. "Green Berets" has sold over nine million singles and albums.

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