The Helpful Fixer:
Canada and the Vietnam War
A special series on
As It Happens (6:30 PM 7:00 PM NT)
April 24-27, 2000

April 30th marks the 25th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. Now is the time to tell the little known and disturbing story of Canada's role in the Vietnam war.

"Many Canadians, if they think of the Vietnam War at all, think of it as the U.S. war in Vietnam," says As It Happens host Mary Lou Finlay.

"Canada was just the 'helpful fixer', taking in American draft dodgers and trying to rein in the warring parties and bring about a peace settlement. But our role was more complicated than that, and we weren't always very candid about it."

This series looks at several aspects of Canada's involvement in the Vietnam war including stories about:

• The Canadian man who oversaw the closing of the embassy in Saigon in April 1975
• The Canadian woman whose efforts to help orphans in Indo-China were met with disaster
• The Canadian who went on a secret mission to Hanoi in the days before the U.S. bombing began
• The former head of research for the company that produced Agent Orange in Canada

  Part One - The Fall of Saigon, Monday, April 24
  Part Two - Quiet Diplomacy or Quiet Complicity, April 25
  Part Three - Partners in Conflict, April 26: : Part 1 Part 2
  MPEG Gallery - brief videos from the As It Happens Vietnam trip
  

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES

Twenty five years ago this April, American helicopters hovered over the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The humiliating final retreat of U.S. involvement in Vietnam had begun. It was an ugly and chaotic scene. A scene that has since become a symbol of not only the biggest military defeat in U.S. history, but of all that was wrong with America's post-war attitude toward the rest of the world. The final message from the CIA to Washington that April morning concluded with a simple plea: "It has been a long and hard fight and we have lost. Those who fail to learn from history are forced to repeat it. Let us hope that we have learned our lesson."

In the intervening years, much has been said about the legacy of the Vietnam War and about the lessons learned. But very little has been said about Canada's role in that war. Very little has been said about Canada's role in the death of more than two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. And precious little has been said about the lessons Canadians should have learned.

To be sure, Canada did not initiate America's war with the people of Vietnam, and some Canadians made great sacrifices in trying to stop the war. But behind the scenes a very different Canada was at work. A Canada that was anything but peaceable.

For example. Did you know that Canada was one of the chief U.S. arms suppliers during the Vietnam era (some say "the" chief supplier). From l964 to 1973, Canadian companies, with the blessing of the Federal government, sold more than $12.5 billon worth of ammunition and asorted instruments of war to the U.S. military. Bombs dropped by B-52s over civilian targets in North Vietnam during so-called carpet bombing raids were made out of Sudbury's finest nickel.

In the mid-l960's, unemployment in Canada fell to a record low of under 4 per cent. Much of the country's good fortune was attributed directly to Canada's connection to the U.S. war machine. Jean Marchand, then Liberal Minister of Manpower when questioned by a Montreal reporter about the morality of such a "devil's bargain" and the ignorance of the Canadian public to such a pact is quoted as saying: "Do you want to be the one to tell 150,000 Canadian workers that they are out of work 'because' we discontinued producing war material for the USA under the defence contracts we hold with them?"

Another example of Canada's direct role in the war with Vietnam was Agent Orange. This highly carcinogenic defoliant was sprayed indiscriminately over soldiers and civilians alike throughout the war. But how many Canadians know that Agent Orange was tested in Camp Gagetown, New Brunswick? Or that it was produced in Elmira, Ontario? Imagine if American protesters knew then where one of the most deadliest of weapons used during the war actually came from. Imagine if Canadians knew.

Twenty five years after the war, the poison sprayed over Vietnam is victimizing a new generation of Vietnamese. Twenty five years later, Washington still refuses to accept responsibility for its actions. If the U.S. is to be held accountable, what about Canada?

THE BOAT PEOPLE

Perhaps the most dramatic and positive memory Canadians have of Canada's role in the Vietnam war is when this country opened its arms to welcome what turned out to be 130,000 Vietnamese refugees.

The exodus began in earnest on that April morning, 25 years ago, when Saigon fell to Vietnam's communist insurgents. Canadians remember the plane loads and boatloads of refugees that eventually washed up on our shores. They remember the lengths Canada went to accomodate these hapless souls. It was a moment of great national pride. But the question, "Why were these people fleeing Vietnam in the first place?" was never asked. You would be hard pressed to find a Canadian news article over the past 25 years that makes the connection between the Vietnamese flight from bombed-out houses and villages, and the Canadian made weaponry that helped bring about the destruction of the countryside and cities of Vietnam.

Related Links
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• Kim Phuc - the power of an image CBC NewsOnline
• Canadian POWs MIAs who served in the American military
• Canada's role in the Vietnam war - article written for the Canadian encyclopedia
• Canadian casualties of the Vietnam war
• Vietnam war maps
• The Vietnam War Declassification Project