WARNING: This archived copy was “last updated July 2009” —
For current maintained version go to: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~jjones/amcan.html
Vietnam War Resisters in Canada
A Guide to Web Sites
Archives
~
Art
~
Bibliographies
~
Biographies
~
Books
~
Encyclopedia Articles
~
Essays
~
Exhibitions
~
Fiction
~
History
~
Interviews
~
Memoirs
~
News Items
~
Film & TV
~
Special Collections
~
This web site complements an offline annotated bibliography in progress since January 2000. The first section offers a selection of material listed in a browsing order. Following this are specific sections for archives, articles, bibliographies/filmographies, books, people, other links of interest, and today’s situation.
Vietnam
War Deserters and Draft Resisters in Canada : List of Selected
Works / Joseph Jones
Bibliography: Three lists of books.
Historical Notes
on Vietnam War Resisters in Canada / Joseph Jones
No. 1: The Numbers for U.S. Draft Resisters and Deserters Who
Moved to Canada
No. 2: Canadian Immigration Policy 1966-1974 and the Arrival of
U.S. Vietnam War Resisters
No. 3: Pierre Trudeau’s Views on U.S. Vietnam War Resisters
Seeking Sanctuary: Draft Dodgers
Archive: Twenty TV and radio segments from CBC Archives.
Draft-dodgers : insoumis, déserteurs et réfractaires
Archive: Eight TV and radio segments from Archives de Radio-Canada.
The Ragnarokr Cordwainery : The History of an American Exile Community
in Toronto, 1968-1996 / Philip M. Mullins
Wiki: Although focused on Ragnarokr, this site includes much
material on the larger Toronto exile community. Includes biographies
of about thirty individuals.
Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada / Mark Satin
Memoir & Bibliography: From the creator of the Manual. Also
see his reproduction of a statement by the
Toronto Anti-Draft Programme,
and his entry in the “People” section below.
The Montreal Council to Aid War Resisters & the American Refugee Service / Gary W. Davis
Memoir: By the director of the Council and Service 1972-1975.
Valid Offers, Technical Truth : Part I / Tom Yori
Valid Offers, Technical Truth : Part II / Tom Yori
Memoir: A draft resister tries to get landed immigrant status at
the border. Published in Viet Nam Generation 4:1-2 (April 1992)
American Deserters
Committee
Archive: Freedom of Information Act files from the FBI
concerning the American Deserters Committee (Montreal) – six parts
in pdf format.
A
Neglected Number: American Women’s Immigration Experience in Canada During the Vietnam War / Karen M. Dabney
Student project: Includes statistics, images, a personal
narrative, and a list of works cited. Course work for Women’s
Studies 399, Spring 2003, St. Olaf College.
Storming The Barricades, 1967-1973: Vancouver’s Underground Press
Gangs / Rick McGrath
Biographies and Photos: This extensive listing of individuals
associated with the early years of the Georgia Straight includes
a number of draft resisters.
Interview with John Swalby (The Vietnam Project, The Oral History
Project / Texas Tech University)
Interview: The detailed story of deserter John Swalby and his
experience in moving to Canada. Follow the link “Complete list
of interviews” and then find Swalby in the alphabetical list.
Available in two formats: audio file or thirty-two page transcript in pdf.
Baldwin Street, American Exile & Alternative Lifestyle Community, Toronto, Canada, 1967-74 / John Phillips
Photographs: Part of the larger collection at
John Phillips Photography
What Happened to Vietnam Era War Resisters? War Resistance, Amnesty and Exile – Just the Facts / Harold Jordan
Article: From Youth and Militarism, published by the
American Friends Service Committee. Originally published in May 2000 as
War Resistance, Amnesty, and Exile – Just the Facts.
Adjustment of Status Program, 1973
History: An Immigration Historical Note from Citizenship and
Immigration Canada. Landed immigrant status was granted to 39,000
illegal immigrants, including draft resisters and deserters.
Draft-Age Americans in Canada
History: A section from Forging our Legacy : Canadian Citizenship
and Immigration, 1900-1977, a book by Valerie Knowles commissioned by
the federal department. The 1970 photograph of the Montreal American
Deserters Committee can also be found in: Spencer, William, “Why they
won’t fight,” Weekend magazine 20:6 (Feb. 7, 1970) 2.
There the individuals are identified as: Larry Svirchev, Jim Weeks,
Paul Petri, Steve Argo, John Nichols (left to right).
Special Note:
The above dead link became a matter of controversy in 2009 because
material was removed from the Government of Canada web site (possibly
reflecting present Canadian government attitude toward Iraq War deserters
in Canada). On 4 July 2009 Sue Bailey of Canadian Press reported on Ken
Marciniec’s access to information attempts to discover why
the information disappeared. Text without photo can still be viewed by
scrolling down to the subheading Draft-age Americans in Canada on this archival web site.
The book is still available in libraries.
Vietnam
War Resisters: Then and Now
Biography: Stories with photos of thirteen men who came to Canada
during the Vietnam War.
Waves of US Immigration to Canada
Film & TV: Part of a CBC series What Border? The Americanization
of Canada
Rochdale
College and the 60’s Counter Culture / National Library of Canada
Exhibition: Includes contemporary draft resister publications.
Of Wars and the Border / Joseph Jones
Review: Covers John Hagan’s Northern Passage : American
Vietnam War Resisters in Canada and Frank Kusch’s All
American Boys : Draft Dodgers in Canada from the Vietnam War.
Our Way Home: Peace Event & Reunion
Event: Meetings related to American war resisters in Canada. On
another web site Andrei Conovaloff provides
A Review of the Event and News About It.
American Civil Liberties Union archives, 1950-1990. Amnesty Project, 1964-1980
Published as part of Series 2, Project files in 17 microfilm
reels: Wilmington, Del. : Scholarly Resources, 2002- The
publisher’s description is accompanied by a twenty-page inventory
in pdf. Also see
American Civil Liberties Union Records: Printed Materials Series, 1947-1995:
Finding Aid
for the broader collection held at Princeton University Library.
The Carter Pardon of January 21, 1977
Texts:
Proclamation 4483 – Granting pardon for violations of the Selective
Service Act, August 4, 1964 to March 28, 1973
Executive Order 11967 – Relating to violations of the Selective Service
Act, August 4, 1964 to March 28, 1973
Renée Kasinsky Fonds 1967-1975
Forty-two page pdf finding aid for 10 boxes of materials collected by
Kasinsky in her research for Refugees from Militarism: Draft-Age
Americans in Canada (1.3 m of textual records).
Edward I. Koch
Transcript from Notable New Yorkers produced by Oral History
Research Office, Columbia University Libraries. Former Congressman
Koch discusses his December 1969 visit to Canada to talk with draft
resisters (pages 529-532).
Perrin, Richard : Papers 1966-2001
Steiner, Samuel J. : 1964-1975
Toronto Anti-Draft Programme 1964-1977
Thirteen-page pdf finding aid for 29 boxes of materials 1964-1977
from the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme. The collection title is Pocock (Jack)
Memorial Collection.
Television News Archive,
Vanderbilt University
“The world’s most extensive and complete archive of
television news” includes ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news
programs since August 5, 1968. A database provides access through
abstracts for each story. Records include interviews with American exiles
in Canada.
Vietnam War Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture / American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Music, etc.: LC Folk Archive Finding Aid includes relevant material.
Canada as Refuge? (University of Edinburgh Canadian Studies Conference,
May 1-2, 2008)
Includes a number of relevant abstracts and/or papers.
U.S. War
Resisters Gather at Reunion in Canadian Town / Associated Press
Republished from Associated Press (July 10, 2006) by Common Dreams.
Greetings
from Resisterville / Fred A. Bernstein
New York Times (Nov. 20, 2004)
Go North Young Man: A Historiographical Look at Vietnam War Draft
Resisters and Military Deserters in Canada / Jody McColman
Essay: A twenty-three page paper in pdf format (46 footnotes,
13 item bibliography). Published in
The UMF Historian 2:1 (Fall 2004)
Is There Any Such Thing as a Good War? / Michael J. Strada
Article: “Americanadians – Vietnam War draft resisters who fled
to Canada – speak out on the Persian Gulf and Kosovo conflicts,”
USA Today vol. 129, issue 2670 (March 2001) 30-32. Republished
by Looksmart at findarticles.com under heading: “Is there any such
thing as a good war? (Draft resisters’ opinions of Canadian military
involvement)”
US Media
Stonewall Canadian Journalist’s Story of Vietnam Desertion / Mick Lowe
On the reception of deserter Jack Todd’s memoir in the United
States. Republished from Straight Goods (May 28, 2001) by Common Dreams.
Their Road Not Taken Went Back Home / John Hagan
Republished from Boston Globe (June 17, 2001) by Common Dreams.
Vietnam War Resisters in Canada / Robert Fulford
National Post (June 26, 2001)
Waves of Compassion: The Founding of Greenpeace / Rex Weyler
Utne Reader (Aug. 10, 2001)
“Web specials archives issues”
Future Stress: the Psychology of Exile
/ Jack Colhoun and Joseph Jones
In pdf format. From Amex Canada 4:6 / 38 (Jan.-Mar. 1974) 42-44
Imaginative Representations of the Viet Nam War
Special Collection: Catalogue includes relevant material housed
at Connelly Library, La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
A Brief and Incomplete Bibliography of Works about American Draft Dodgers and Deserters from the Vietnam War / Stuart Spore
Bibliography: Twenty items listed.
Vietnam War Bibliography / Edwin E. Moïse
Bibliography: Includes relevant items, particularly under subheadings
The Antiwar Movement
and
International – Canada.
Vietnam War Narratives : War Resisters / Sandra Wittman
Bibliography: Part of the Vietnam Yesterday and Today
site, related to her 1989 book Writing About Vietnam.
Includes some relevant titles.
Vietnam on Film and Television: Documentaries in the Library of Congress / Victoria E. Johnson
Film & TV:
The list includes relevant titles held by the Motion Picture,
Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division as of July 1989.
Crossing Lines : Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era /
edited by Allan Briesmaster and Steven Michael Berzensky
Anthology of poems 2008.
Erratic North : a Vietnam Draft Resister’s Life in the
Canadian Bush / Mark Frutkin
Autobiography 2008.
Happenstance and
Misquotation : Canadian Immigration Policy 1966-1974, the Arrival of
U.S. Vietnam War Resisters, and the Views of Pierre Trudeau / Joseph
Jones
Academic study 2008.
The Lost American : from Exile to Freedom / Michael Lee Johnson
Poems 2007. (See also:
Michael Lee
Johnson’s Storefront)
The Draft Dodger Dues : a Banquet of Crow / Robert Ziegler
Autobiography 2006.
Contending Statistics : The Numbers for U.S. Vietnam War Resisters
in Canada / Joseph Jones
Academic study 2005.
All American Boys : Draft Dodgers in Canada from the Vietnam
War / Frank Kusch
Academic study 2001.
Desertion : In the Time of Vietnam / Jack Todd
Autobiography 2001.
G.I. Resister : The Story of How One American Soldier and His Family Fought the War in Vietnam / Dick Perrin
Memoir 2001.
Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada / John Hagan
Academic study 2001.
Through the Picture Tube / Patrick Grady
Fiction 2000.
North to Canada : Men and Women Against the Vietnam War / James Dickerson
Journalistic narrative 1999.
This listing is limited to publisher’s descriptions. Also see
the list at
Vietnam War Deserters and Draft Resisters in Canada.
Leaving America ... and laying America to Rest / Rick Bébout
Memoir: A section from the larger
An American Education
Yankee Refugees : Escape from Freedom / Rick Bébout
Memoir: Part of Time and Place: Toronto, 1971, excerpted
from the initial chapters of what was to have been a book on the
history of The Body Politic (Toronto).
Michael Bransome
Now a physician in Sweden, Bransome spent a year en route in
Canada. He remains an unpardoned exile from the United States.
Jim Christy
Biography: Entry from BC Bookworld Author Bank.
Frank H. Epp
An entry from the Mennonite Encyclopedia. Editor of
I Would Like to Dodge the Draft Dodgers, But ... (1970) –
the first book on the subject of American Vietnam War resisters in
Canada.
Chris Faiers
His Eel Pie Dharma is the memoir of a Canadian who left the
U.S. under threat of the draft.
Mark Frutkin
A writer who lives in Ottawa.
Michael Goldstein
Obituary for the “wizard of Rochdale.”
Gary Harland
Interview: War resister who immigrated to Canada (from Online
Book Initiative)
Ernest Hekkanen
Biographical sketch with links and bibliography of his writings.
Michael Lee Johnson
A poet who spent ten years in Edmonton.
Laura Jones
Toronto researcher, writer, photographer involved in public service.
’Nam Vet and the Draft Dodger / Mick Lowe
Vietnam
Still Part of America’s Psyche / Mick Lowe
Memoir: From Sudbury Public Library, Northern Life Archives.
Lost
to Vietnam / Beth Taylor
Memoir: The story of her brother’s Vietnam-War-related suicide.
Includes an account of Tony McQuail who moved to Canada.
joenickell.com
Joe Nickell resided in Canada 1968-1977 as a war resister exile.
Brief illustrated accounts are provided under the headings War Resister
and Anti-War Activist and Federal Fugitive under the Personas tab.
John F. Phillips
A Toronto photographer.
Nancy Pocock
A Canadian Quaker who helped refugees come to Canada.
Tony Ramos / Stefanie Wyss
Interview: Draft resister Tony Ramos returned from Canada to two and
a half years of prison after the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Part of a 1998 high school project in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Mark Satin
Compiler of the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to
Canada and co-founder of the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme.
War and I / Glenn Sheppard
Memoir: A Canadian recollects encounters with American exiles.
William G. Smith
A Los Angeles lawyer who “negotiated the dismissal of
hundreds of outstanding criminal indictments [of draft resisters]
who were living abroad or in a fugitive status.”
Jesse
Winchester
An entry from the Canadian Music Encyclopedia. A Quebec
musician who came to Canada as a draft resister.
Americans
/ J.M. Bumsted
This entry from Encyclopedia of Canada’s Peoples
includes material on Vietnam-era American emigration to Canada.
We Ain’t Marching Anymore: Draft and Military Resistance to the Vietnam War / Andy Mager
This article from the War Resisters League offers a useful summary
of statistics.
This
War is Not Our War! An Analysis and Critique of Forms of Resistance
amongst the American GIs during the Vietnam War / Andy Walpole
(Liverpool John Moores University)
An article with 33 endnotes from American Studies Today Online,
posted in 2000.
Chickenhawks,
Draft Dodgers and War Resisters / Fritz Efaw
An article from The Veteran, published by Vietnam Veterans Against
the War.
Prisoner’s Dilemma: How 60’s Anti-War Activists Let Today’s Chicken
Hawks Off the Hook. A Draft Resister’s Story / Robert Poe
From Washington Monthly October 2003.
Remembering Canada’s Role in the Vietnam War / Robin Collins
Vietnam War Internet Links / William A. Joseph, Wellesley College
Vietnam Era Lottery Results
A link on the Selective Service System’s site for
“History/Records.”
A Matter of Conscience: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War / William Short and Willa Seidenberg
A photographic/oral history project with bibliography.
Two Wars, Two Histories / Joseph Jones
Review: Covers Eric L. Muller’s Free to Die for Their
Country : The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in
World War II and Reporting Vietnam : American Journalism
1959-1975.
Sir! No Sir!
Film: The web site related to this documentary on the GI
resistance to the Vietnam War includes
1) a
Library
with browsable readings, a database, a subject index, reproduced
pamphlets, and reports from investigations
2) a
Resistance
Chronology with one general and six subject timelines 1964-1973,
3)
Galleries
with more than 1200 images (cartoons, GI newspaper covers,
photographs), and
4)
Audio
Resources
Protest and Change : The Antiwar/Antidraft Movement and Selective Service / Mike Shepherd
Essay: Ten pages with 63 footnotes.
Writing
Vietnam / Tim O’Brien
Lecture: Among other things, O’Brien retells and comments on his
story “On the Rainy River.”
About the Vietnam War (1960-1975)
Part of the Modern American Poetry site.
Canada and the Vietnam War
Radio series: CBC, April 24-27, 2000
RITA (Resistance in the Army) / Max Watts
Men and Women Who Dare to Say No : Mennonite Resistance to Draft Registration 1980-1985 / Mark Becker
A substantial essay based on primary research.
Honoring Those Who Swerved
Art: A postage stamp parody.
Canada and the Vietnam War / Victor Levant
Encyclopedia Article: From Canadian Encyclopedia.
U.S.
- Canada Smart Border/30 Point Action Plan Update
Memo: White House news and policies December 2002.
Canadian Friends Service Committee : Resources
See “Briefing Paper on US Soldiers coming to Canada”
(May 2005) – file in pdf format.
Urban Myth: Flight to Canada / Center on Conscience & War
Decisions in the claims for refugee protection of Jeremy Hinzman ...
Decision from Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board on
the refugee claim of U.S. deserter Jeremy Hinzman and family.
J.E. McNeil, Executive Director, Center on Conscience and War
Interview: April 5, 2005.
Conscientious Objection
Special issue of MoveOn Bulletin.
AWOL in Canada
From the program archives of CBC’s Disclosure. Includes
a selection of links.
Exposing the
Coming Draft / Tom Reeves
Lengthy March 2005 analysis from the co-author of The End
of the Draft (1970).
Draft Registration, Draft
Resistance, the Military Draft, and the Medical Draft / Edward
Hasbrouck
A large collection of information, on a web site hosted in
Canada, regularly maintained by a long-standing draft resistance activist.
Suggestions for additions are welcome. For contact information see Joseph Jones.
Established May 2001
Extensively revised February 2004
Last updated July 2009
Migrated July 2013
Hosted by Vancouver Community Network