Canada In Vietnam

If you didn’t know Canada had troops in Vietnam your not alone. The Vietnam War is the other forgotten war conveniently wiped from the country’s collective memory because of its complex and secretive nature.

From Now Magazine

No homage, however, to those Canadians who fought in the war the horrors of which gave all other wars a bad name. I’m speaking of the Vietnam war.


As many as 40,000 Canadians, by one estimate, volunteered for military service with the American forces in Vietnam. That’s more Canadians than took part in the Korean War.


But aside from a small memorial in Windsor (which Vietnam vets themselves fought for two decades to have built) and another in Calgary, Canada’s involvement in the Vietnam War has been nearly wiped from the history books here.


The Library and Archives of Canada, which has a website dedicated to Canada’s wars, makes no mention of Canadians who fought in Vietnam. The Canadian War Museum is also mostly silent on the subject. I found some references online to an official recognition being planned by the feds at the museum back in 2005, but that hasn’t happened. A mannequin in American uniform and a couple of info panels is all there is.


Canada wasn’t officially a participant in the war in Vietnam.


Canada was torn on the subject – on the one hand providing humanitarian aid to Vietnam during the conflict with the U.S., on the other, backing with equipment and military supplies, American efforts there – and, not to mention, providing diplomatic cover.


In some respects Vietnam is Canada’s dirty little secret.

Reliving History

It is heartening to see someone finally tackled the tale of telling our contribution at D-Day .

From Toronto Star

The film crew was recreating the chaotic landing at Normandy on June 6, 1944 for the 90-minute docudrama Storming Juno, and director and executive producer Tim Wolochatiuk says one of the men approached the crew in tears.


He had been among the estimated 16,000 Canadian soldiers who landed at Juno Beach on D-Day, and the scene brought forth a flood of memories.


“He said it was exactly like this and he said it just threw him right back to 1944,” recalls Wolochatiuk.


“He was thrown back and got quite emotional at times — there’s guys running around in German uniforms and that kind of was a trigger for him as well.”


“On the one hand it was amazing to hear him say it and on the other, it was a bit of a relief to hear him say that . . . perhaps we were doing something more right than wrong.”

For more information on Storming Juno [click here]

In Flanders Fields

Choice for Childcare: Rememberance Day


In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.


John McCrae

or you can watch



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