Role of Canada in America’s War in Vietnam (Term Paper Sample)

Canada’s role in America’s war in Vietnam
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Canada’s role in America’s war in Vietnam
As the Cold War was more of a time period encapsulating several different conflicts around the world for several decades than an actual war with a fixed start date, the purpose of this paper is to specifically bring to light Canada’s activities during the era of the American military involvement in Vietnam and South-East Asia, which spanned from the late 1950’s up to and including the middle of the 1970’s. This analysis will be helpful in answering many important questions regarding Canada and its place in the world including the image that the Canadian government promotes successfully as a ‘peacekeeping nation’, both nationally and internationally as being accurate or not. This paper will also explore the consequences of the Canadian-U.S. relationship especially when it comes to shared defense agreements.
Much like nearly every other nation-state on the planet, Canada is a country that prides itself on having strong defense capabilities to protect its citizenry as well as having a capable and honourable military. The Canadian military has participated dutifully in global wars since the Boer War that occurred near the turn of the twentieth century as well as both World Wars and then the peacekeeping role that the military participated in during the Cold War. In fact Canada’s participation in the Cold War on the side of the West, NATO and the so-called ‘first-world’ nations has been largely defined by its peacekeeping roles. Though Canada played a secondary role during the tumultuous time known as the Cold War, this time period was dominated by the two global superpowers at the time, namely the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Naturally there is definitely much more documentation regarding those countries’ activities during the Cold War than Canada’s, but nevertheless Canada’s activities are documented even though they are not as well known. Through an exploration of these recorded, though little-known histories, we can produce a more total and accurate picture of the lesser-known aspects of Canada’s history during the global Cold War and the Vietnam War.
Agent Orange
The Vietnam War was a significant part of the Cold War as it was one the few instances in which it was in fact a very hot or active war and participated in by the superpower, namely the United States. By any reasonable assessment of the war, the Americans with their superior firepower and military technology, pummeled Vietnam day-in day-out for years in order to root out communist influences from the country which was believed to be supported by the U.S.S.R. which was also a communist country. Whether or not the US’s actions were justified, they did kill millions of Vietnamese, the vast majority of them civilians and perhaps the most heinous of all the weapons that the Americans employed in their fight was a military-grade herbicide named Agent Orange. The Americans doused Vietnamese with Agent Orange in order to increase their visibility of the terrain and also to reduce the cover which was afforded to the opposing Viet Cong army by the abundance of the thick green trees. Tragically, Agent Orange seeped into the ground underneath the trees and entered streams and rivers from where many Vietnamese drew their water for their own personal consumption and for use in growing their agricultural crops. As a direct result of this chemical poisoning, thousands upon thousands of Vietnamese children have been born with severe physical and mental defects.
These consequences were laid upon the most innocent; children of civilians who had nothing to do with communism or any conflict with the Americans. This is an affront to any civilized person or nation and while America gets the whole brunt of this guilt, what is little known is the role that Canada played in creating Agent Orange. Though Canada did not actively send any troops to Vietnam, the Canadian defense industry did sell the Americans many armaments and supplies during the conflict. In fact Agent Orange was initially tested in Gagetown, New Brunswick, which is a small town in Eastern Canada and home to a significant Canadian military base that was built as part of Canada’s strategic Cold War plans.
Disaster struck when the residents of Gagetown began to fall ill and experience symptoms similar to the symptoms the Vietnamese would soon experience as a result of the Agent Orange testing that also seeped into their environment. It is surprising that this is not so well known outside of Gagetown, though the most reasonable answer as to why it is not so well-known, is because it would be a huge scandal for the government and would destroy any kind of claim the Canadian government had of being not involved with America’s war in Vietnam. The Canadian victims of Agent Orange have yet to have their claims formally acknowledged or receive compensation for their medical problems which include skin disorders, disease of the liver and various cancers. The claimants and their surviving family members are still fighting for their rights and compensations in the Canadian courts.
Arms Trades
Agent Orange was only one of the many projects and armaments that Canada helped America with during their Vietnam War. Canada has a large defense industry that produces the latest in weapon and military support technology and then makes much of it available for sale to nation-states around the world and this naturally includes America who is Canada’s largest trading partner by far. Canada did supply America with many armaments and support equipment while actively promoting a policy of non-involvement in Vietnam. This is not an indictment of Canadian society or its population as a whole, though it was several hundred Canadian businesses who manufacture weapons that no doubt relished the additional business the American involvement in Vietnam brought them.
Additionally, all international sales of weapons and military products is something that is overseen by the federal government, who naturally viewed the additional sales of Canadian goods as a boost to the national economy, moral or not. These items included bomb ordinances and explosives, airplane parts, military uniforms, military food rations, transportation including trucks, planes and cars as well as raw materials to be later used in the manufacturing of weapons in the United States and around the world. While Canadian politicians often publicly opposed the American’s in Vietnam, the fact of the matter was that Canada’s political and economic ideologies was opposed to communism for many different reasons, which meant that they could not support a communist take-over in Vietnam as it could potentially strengthen NATO’s chief communist rival, the U.S.S.R. These policies and contradictory actions of the Canadian government at the time was called ‘quiet complicity’ by Tommy Douglas, who was the leader of the official government opposition and the head of the New Democracy Party.
The Canadian government additionally provided various support for the democratic Southern Vietnam, who in turn was allied with the Americans and did actively fight alongside them, so this was another way in which Canada participated in the Vietnam war, though it was never its own war by any official declaration. The revelation obtained by this information is important because it invites the public to have a more skeptical approach towards all state government. Just because they might not overtly send military troops or make loud declarative statements gunning for war, they might employ more quiet and subtle means of fulfilling their political goals, through economic and material support for instance.
Draft Dodgers
It is important to also acknowledge the other side of Canada’s actions during America’s Vietnam War. Canada is a large and pluralistic democratic society and this at times means the country engage in contradictory behaviour since the whole country cannot be expected to think or act the same way when it comes to different issues; the truth resists this kind of simplicity. For many young American men who were facing forced conscription into fighting against the Viet Cong, Canada became a refuge for those who did not believe in America’s war in Vietnam as being either righteous or worthwhile. These so-called ‘draft-dodgers’ and deserters escaped to Canada to escape conscription and imprisonment, which was the consequence of many who refused to be conscripted.
Many Canadians who agreed that the American war in Vietnam was immoral, applauded and welcomed these young men into their country, as Canadians have done in the past for countless political refugees from any other country. Some statistics count as many as one hundred thousand Americans, many of them considered to be the most educated and intelligent of that generation’s men, escaped to Canada in order to avoid being shipped off to Vietnam. Largely the draft-dodgers believed that the Vietnamese posed no real threat to them and rather that this was the plans of greedy war-makers and belligerent politicians. While Canadian politicians at the federal level did not actively promote this migration of Americans into their country, they did not necessarily actively oppose it either. In fact many municipal governments, including the city councils of Vancouver and Toronto did actively promote and assist American draft-dodgers in relocating to Canada and as a result many of those same Americans laid down roots in Canada and have stayed ever...