Vietnam War resisters in Canada

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Street door to the office of the Student Union for Peace Action's Anti-Draft Programme, on busy Spadina Avenue in Toronto, August 1967. Draft dodger counseling office.jpg
Street door to the office of the Student Union for Peace Action's Anti-Draft Programme, on busy Spadina Avenue in Toronto, August 1967.

Vietnam War resisters in Canada were American draft evaders and military deserters who avoided serving in the Vietnam War by seeking political asylum in Canada between 1965 and 1975. Draft avoiders were typically college-educated and middle class Americans who could no longer avoid conscription. [1] Deserters were usually lower-income and working class who had been inducted into the United States Armed Forces right after high school or had later volunteered. [1]

Contents

Many Americans who took refuge in Canada assimilated in the country and continued to reside there decades after the war's end in 1975. [2] Unlike the Swedish authorities who also granted asylum to American war resisters, the Canadian authorities acted discreetly and did not publicly take a position on the United States' role in the war.

History

Immigration and politics

Starting in 1965, Canada became the main haven for Vietnam War resisters. Canadian immigration policy at the time made it easy for immigrants from all countries to obtain legal status in Canada, and classified war resisters as immigrants. [3] There is no official estimate of how many draft evaders and deserters were admitted during the Vietnam War. One estimate puts their number between 30,000 and 40,000. [1]

The Canadian government initially refused to admit deserters who could not prove that they had been discharged from American military service; this would change in 1968. [1] On May 22, 1969, Ottawa announced that immigration officials would not and could not ask about applicants' military status if they sought residence. [4] The issue of accepting American exiles became a local political debate in Canada that focused on Canada's sovereignty in its immigration law.

The United States never seriously contested Canada's actions, while Sweden's acceptance was heavily criticized. The United States did not become involved because American politicians generally viewed Canada as a close ally not worth disturbing over a war that was becoming rapidly unpopular domestically and internationally. [5] Emigration from the United States continued to be unusually high while the United States was involved in the Vietnam War and maintained compulsory military service. In 1971 and 1972, Canada received more immigrants from the United States than from any other country. [1]

American draft evaders were at first assisted by the Student Union for Peace Action, a campus-based Canadian anti-war group with connections to Students for a Democratic Society. [6] [7] By late 1967, draft evaders were being assisted primarily by several locally based anti-draft groups (over twenty of them), such as the Vancouver Committee to Aid American War Objectors [8] [9] and the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme. [10] [11] As a counselor for the Programme, Mark Satin wrote the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada in 1968. [12] [13] It sold nearly 100,000 copies overall. [14] [15]

Amnesty and repatriations

In September 1974, President Gerald R. Ford created an amnesty program for draft evaders that required them to work in alternative service occupations for periods of six to 24 months. [16] In January 19, 1977 President Jimmy Carter fulfilled a campaign promise and offered pardons to any draft evader who requested one. It created controversy, with the right complaining of giving amnesty to criminals and those on the left complaining that requesting a pardon required the admission of a crime. [17]

According to sociologist John Hagan, after the 1977 amnesty about half of the draft evaders in Canada remained while the other half returned to the United States. [18] Notably among those who chose to return were lower-class individuals who had trouble finding work in Canada, a minority of leftist radicals who had demanded amnesty, and ethnic minorities who had trouble assimilating to Canadian culture. Despite not being granted amnesty, about 4 in 5 deserters eventually returned to the United States. [19]

Assimilation

Those that continued to live in Canada would form a visible community of Americans in Canada. [2] The notably young and educated population that remained expanded Canada's arts and academic sectors, and helped promote leftist politics in Canada. [20] American draft evaders who left for Canada and became prominent there include author William Gibson, politician Jim Green, gay rights advocate Michael Hendricks, attorney Jeffry House, author Keith Maillard, playwright John Murrell, television personality Eric Nagler, film critic Jay Scott, and musician Jesse Winchester. Other draft evaders from the Vietnam era remain in Sweden and elsewhere. [21] [22]

People

Interview with Mike Tulley, an American Vietnam War deserter who emigrated to Canada. (For interview, click on gray arrow at lower left of photo.)

Deserters

An estimated one thousand deserters fled to Canada to avoid more service in the Vietnam War. The United States government have not pardoned them and they may still face pro forma arrest if they return to the United States, as the case of Allen Abney demonstrated in March 2006. [23] [24]

Draft evaders

Estimates vary greatly as to how many Americans immigrated to Canada for the specific reason of evading conscription, as opposed to desertion, or other reasons. Canadian immigration statistics show that 20,000 to 30,000 draft-eligible American men came to Canada as immigrants during the Vietnam era. The BBC stated that "as many as 60,000 young American men dodged the draft." [25] Estimates of the total number of American citizens who moved to Canada due to their opposition to the war range from 50,000 to 125,000 [26] This exodus was "the largest politically motivated migration from the United States since the United Empire Loyalists moved north to oppose the American Revolution." [27]

These young men were often well educated, [1] [28] [29] and alienated from American society, showing a knowledge and distaste for American social problems at the time. Most felt the Vietnam War was immoral, and felt supported by the era's counterculture and protests to make the decision to flee to Canada. Despite a general distaste for the war, only a minority were active political radicals. Many may have made the decision to immigrate to Canada not because of a major opposition to the morality of the war, but in fear of a removal of personal independence brought by conscription. Many were middle class and needed little assistance assimilating in Canada. Draft evaders of a lower class background were more likely to come to Canada only as a last resort. [19]

American draft evaders tended to balance the "brain drain" that Canada had experienced. While some draft evaders returned to the United States after a pardon was declared in 1977 during the administration of Jimmy Carter, roughly half of them stayed in Canada. [30]

Notable Vietnam War resisters in Canada

Gay rights advocate Michael Hendricks (right) is an American draft evader that became a prominent person in Canada. Hendricks-leboeuf2.jpg
Gay rights advocate Michael Hendricks (right) is an American draft evader that became a prominent person in Canada.

Deserters

Draft evaders

Others

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draft evasion</span> Intentional non-compliance with military conscription

Conscription evasion or draft evasion is any successful attempt to elude a government-imposed obligation to serve in the military forces of one's nation. Sometimes draft evasion involves refusing to comply with the military draft laws of one's nation. Illegal draft evasion is said to have characterized every military conflict of the 20th and 21st centuries, in which at least one party of such conflict has enforced conscription. Such evasion is generally considered to be a criminal offense, and laws against it go back thousands of years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Satin</span> American political theorist, writer, and newsletter publisher

Mark Ivor Satin is an American political theorist, writer, and newsletter publisher. He is best known for contributing to the development and dissemination of three political perspectives – neopacifism in the 1960s, New Age politics in the 1970s and 1980s, and radical centrism in the 1990s and 2000s. Satin's work is sometimes seen as building toward a new political ideology, and then it is often labeled "transformational", "post-liberal", or "post-Marxist". One historian calls Satin's writing "post-hip".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desertion</span> Abandonment of military duty without authorization

Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave, which are temporary forms of absence.

Canada did not officially participate in the Vietnam War. However, it contributed to peacekeeping forces in 1973 to help enforce the Paris Peace Accords.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conscription in the United States</span> History of mandatory military service in the United States

In the United States, military conscription, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The fourth incarnation of the draft came into being in 1940, through the Selective Training and Service Act; this was the country's first peacetime draft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Hinzman</span> American deserter and Iraq War resister

Jeremy Dean Hinzman is an Iraq War resister who was the first American deserter to seek refugee status in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War Resisters Support Campaign</span>

The War Resisters Support Campaign (WRSC) is a Canadian non-profit community organization, founded in April 2004 in Toronto, Ontario to mobilize support among Canadians and worldwide to convince the Canadian government to offer sanctuary to all U.S. military personnel who wish to come to Canada because of their opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Jeffry A. House is a retired lawyer who practiced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is best known for his efforts on behalf and representation of fugitive American soldiers and Indigenous protesters.

Amnesty is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet been convicted." Though the term general pardon has a similar definition, an amnesty constitutes more than a pardon, in so much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offense. Amnesty is increasingly used to express the idea of "freedom" and to refer to when prisoners can go free.

Robin Long is one of several U.S. Army deserters who sought asylum in Canada because of his opposition to the Iraq War and became the first of those to be deported to the United States after being rejected for refugee status. He was deported from Canada on July 15, 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq War resisters in Canada</span>

During the Iraq War, which began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, there were United States military personnel who refused to participate, or continue to participate, in that specific war. Their refusal meant that they faced the possibility of punishment in the United States according to Article 85 of the US Uniform Code of Military Justice. For that reason some of them chose to go to Canada as a place of refuge. The choice of these US Iraq War resisters to go to Canada has led to considerable debate in Canada's society, press, legal arenas, and political arenas. Much of the debate on this issue has been due to the controversial nature of the Iraq War itself. Among the many elements of that debate are Canada's relationship to the Iraq War, and Canada's relationship to the US, its largest trading partner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War resister</span> Person who resists war

A war resister is a person who resists war. The term can mean several things: resisting participation in all war, or a specific war, either before or after enlisting in, being inducted into, or being conscripted into a military force.

Kimberly Rivera is an Iraq War resister and former U.S. Army Private First Class who went AWOL in February 2007 after a year of service. She was the first female U.S. military deserter to flee to Canada. She was deported from Canada on September 20, 2012, and pleaded guilty to desertion, receiving a sentence of ten months' imprisonment and a bad-conduct discharge. Amnesty International objected to her detention and designated her a prisoner of conscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draft evasion in the Vietnam War</span> U.S. and Australian social phenomenon, 1964–1973

Draft evasion in the Vietnam War was a common practice in the United States and in Australia. Significant draft avoidance was taking place even before the United States became heavily involved in the Vietnam War. The large cohort of Baby Boomers and late Silent Generationers allowed for a steep increase in the number of exemptions and deferments, especially for college and graduate students. More than half of the 27 million men eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War were deferred, exempted or disqualified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American immigration to Canada</span>

American immigration to Canada was a notable part of the social history of Canada. Over Canada's history various refugees and economic migrants from the United States would immigrate to Canada for a variety of reasons. Exiled Loyalists from the United States first came, followed by African-American refugees, economic migrants, and later draft evaders from the Vietnam War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vietnam War resisters in Sweden</span>

Vietnam War resisters in Sweden were Americans who fled to Sweden to avoid service in the Vietnam War between 1967 and 1973. Among the roughly 1,000 American exiles were around 800 military deserters and draft dodgers. Unlike other nations like Canada that discreetly harbored Vietnam War resisters, the Swedish government granted war resisters asylum status and the public openly welcomed them. This unique acceptance and Swedish politicians' open protests against American involvement in the Vietnam War caused a rift in relations between the United States and Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Whitmore</span> A Black military deserter and resister during the Vietnam War who went to Sweden

Terry Marvell Whitmore was an American soldier, deserter and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proclamation 4483</span> Jimmy Carters pardon of draft evaders

Proclamation 4483, also known as the Granting Pardon for Violations of the Selective Service Act, was a presidential proclamation issued by Jimmy Carter on January 21, 1977. It granted pardons to those who evaded the draft in the Vietnam War by violating the Military Selective Service Act from August 4, 1964, to March 28, 1973. It was implemented through Executive Order 11967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intrepid Four</span> U.S. Sailors who deserted to oppose the Vietnam War

The Intrepid Four were a group of United States Navy sailors who grew to oppose what they called "the American aggression in Vietnam" and publicly deserted from the USS Intrepid in October 1967 as it docked in Japan during the Vietnam War. They were among the first American troops whose desertion was publicly announced during the war and the first within the U.S. Navy. The fact that it was a group, and not just an individual, made it more newsworthy.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Knowles, Valerie (2000). Forging Our Legacy: Canadian Citizenship and Immigration, 1900–1977. Public Works and Government Services Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada. ISBN   0662289838.
  2. 1 2 "War Resisters Remain in Canada with No Regrets". ABC News. November 21, 2005.
  3. ↑ Schreiber, Jan (January 1968). "Canada's Haven for Draft Dodgers". The Progressive, p. 34.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Nicholas Keung (August 20, 2010). "Iraq war resisters meet cool reception in Canada". Toronto Star. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  5. ↑ Stewart, Luke (2018). "'Hell, they're your problem, not ours': Draft Dodgers, Military Deserters and Canada-United States Relations in the Vietnam War Era". Études Canadiennes / Canadian Studies (85). Open Edition: 67–96. doi: 10.4000/eccs.1479 . S2CID   181777562.
  6. ↑ Clausen, Oliver (May 21, 1967). "Boys Without a Country". The New York Times Magazine, p. 25.
  7. ↑ Williams, Roger N. (1971). The New Exiles: War Resisters in Canada. Liveright Publishers, pp.  61–64. ISBN   978-0-87140-533-3.
  8. ↑ Berton, Pierre (1997). 1967: The Last Good Year. Doubleday Canada, p. 202. ISBN   978-0-385-25662-9.
  9. ↑ Williams, Roger N. (1971), cited above, pp. 56–58.
  10. ↑ Cowan, Edward (February 11, 1968). "Expatriate Draft Evaders Prepare Manual on How to Immigrate to Canada". The New York Times, p. 7.
  11. ↑ Hagan, John (2001). Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada. Harvard University Press, pp. 74–80. ISBN   978-0-674-00471-9.
  12. ↑ Jones, Joseph (spring–summer 2002). "The House of Anansi's Singular Bestseller". Canadian Notes & Queries , issue no 61, p. 19.
  13. ↑ MacSkimming, Roy (26 August 2017). "Review: Mark Satin's Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada Is Just as Timely as Ever". The Globe and Mail (Toronto), p. R12. Online dated one day earlier. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  14. ↑ Adams, James (October 20, 2007). "'The Big Guys Keep Being Surprised By Us'". The Globe and Mail (Toronto), p. R6. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  15. ↑ Fulford, Robert (6 September 2017). "How Vietnam War Draft Dodgers Became a Lively and Memorable Part of Canadian History". National Post (Canada), national edition, p. B5. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  16. ↑ Author unspecified (14 September 1974). "Flexible Amnesty Plan Is Reported Set by Ford".   The New York Times , p. 9. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  17. ↑ Schulzinger, Robert D. (2006). A Time for Peace: The Legacy of the Vietnam War. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-507190-0 . Retrieved July 30, 2011.
  18. ↑ Hagan, John (2001), pp. 3 and 241–42.
  19. 1 2 Kusch, Frank (2001). All American Boys Draft Dodgers in Canada from the Vietnam War. Praeger.
  20. ↑ These points have been made in a series of academic journal articles by Canadian social historian David Churchill:
  21. ↑ Baskir and Strauss (1978), p. 201.
  22. ↑ Hagan (2001), cited above, p. 186 (quoting Baskir and Strauss).
  23. ↑ Tremonti, Anna Maria (March 14, 2006). "CBC Radio | The Current | Whole Show Blow-by-Blow". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio, The Current. Archived from the original on November 19, 2007. Retrieved January 21, 2009.
  24. ↑ "Deserter says he was treated well by U.S. military". March 20, 2006. Archived from the original on August 22, 2009. Retrieved January 27, 2017., CBC News
  25. ↑ Gray, Jeff (July 6, 2004). "US deserter's Canadian campaign". BBC. Retrieved January 19, 2009.
  26. ↑ draft dodgers memorial to be built in B.C., CBC News, 09/08/2004
  27. ↑ "On Strawberry Hill" by Chris Turner in The Walrus, September 2007.
  28. ↑ Bailey, Sue (July 5, 2009). "Iraq war resisters decry Tories' website editing". The Toronto Star. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
  29. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Vietnam War Resisters, Then and Now". Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
  30. ↑ Hagan, John (2001), cited above, pp. 167 and 242.
  31. ↑ (January 8, 2006) "Soundman quietly supports his causes Archived October 19, 2015, at the Wayback Machine ", Edmonton Journal, Retrieved December 12, 2012
  32. ↑ JAM! Music [usurped] – Pop Encyclopedia
  33. ↑ Roman Goergen (February 23, 2011). "Sanctuary Denied". In These Times . Archived from the original on March 11, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
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