I may be the only one who has ever come up with this interpretation, but it seems to me that “The End” is a melancholy reflection on the US-backed coup d’etat that overthrew the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam on November 1, 1963.
The singer starts out by describing South Vietnam in in the fall of 1963, with a struggling developing nation led by a corrupt military elite, yet facing an existential threat from the Communists. He then describes the coup itself. At the conclusion, he predicts the demise of the Republic of Vietnam and hints that he himself is heading into exile.
Here is some of the symbolism that I have noted:
- This is the end—South Vietnam’s days are numbered
- My only friend—Journalist Marguerite Higgins, a defender of President Ngo Dinh Diem
- Elaborate plans—the State Department's efforts to make the Republic of Vietnam a success
- Stranger's hand--foreign aid
- Desperate land--South Vietnam
- Roman wilderness of pain--government-by-coup-d'etat, as in ancient Rome
- children are insane--South Vietnam's coup-happy military elite
- King's highway--Route 1, the "street without joy"
- Weird things inside the gold mine—the US State Dept. or CIA
- summer rain--South Vietnam's summer monsoon
- West—The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. (SEATO)
- the snake--the Warsaw Pact
- ancient lake—Communism; the Soviet bloc
- seven miles—seven members of the Warsaw Pact
- he's old...--Nikita Khrushchev or Ho Chi Minh
- blue bus--military vehicle in which Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were held before they were killed
- killer--General Duong Van Minh, organizer of the coup d’etat
- ancient gallery--the United States Information Agency
- hall--the presidential palace
- sister--Tran Le Xuan, Diem's sister and Ngo Dinh Nhu's wife and South Vietnam's "first lady")
- father--Ngo Dinh Diem
- brother--Ngo Dinh Nhu
- mother--Tran Le Xuan?
- You'll never follow me—protagonist heading into exile