Canada and the Vietnam War
Canada did not officially participate in the Vietnam War. However, it contributed to peacekeeping forces in 1973 to help enforce the Paris Peace Accords.[1]
Privately, some Canadians contributed to the war effort. Canadian corporations sold war material to the U.S. government. In addition, at least 30,000 Canadians volunteered to serve in the U.S. armed forces during the war. At least 134 Canadians died or were reported missing in Vietnam.[2]
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of U.S. Vietnam War resisters emigrated to Canada to avoid the draft. Largely middle class and educated, they had a significant impact on Canadian life.[3] After the war, tens of thousands of Vietnamese boat people were also admitted and became a unique part of Canadian life.[4]
In a counter-current to the movement of U.S. draft evaders and deserters to Canada, about 30,000 Canadians volunteered to fight for the U.S. in Southeast Asia.[17] Among the volunteers were 50 Mohawks from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal.[18] U.S. Army Sergeant Peter C. Lemon, an immigrant from Canada, was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor for his valour in the conflict. This cross-border enlistment was not unprecedented: Both the First and the Second World War saw thousands of Americans join the Canadian Armed Forces before the U.S officially declared war on Germany.[19]
In 2015, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) produced a story remembering the Canadians who fought and died in the war.[2] According to that story, a Canadian veterans association estimates that 20,000 Canadians enlisted in the U.S. armed forces to fight alongside the Americans, while some historians put the number as high as 40,000.[2] Of these, an estimated 12,000 saw combat in Vietnam, and at least 134 were killed or declared missing in action.[2]
The 2015 CBC story paid special attention to Rob McSorley, a teen-age Army Ranger from Vancouver who was shot dead by North Vietnamese soldiers.[2] Other Canadians who gave their lives and were recognized in the story include:
In Windsor, Ontario, there is a privately funded monument to the Canadians killed in the Vietnam War.[20] In Melocheville, Quebec, there is a monument dating from October 1989 funded by the Association Québécoise des Vétérans du Vietnam.[21]