Quote:
Originally posted by DeltAlum
No Canadian soldiers fought in Vietnam. That's the point. The Canadian government did not send its' military. Canadian citizens and/or expats, serving in other military organizations did.
During the height of the war, the U.S. had over 500,000 service people in country at any given time. The war lasted ten years. Millions of U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen served in S.E. Asia.
I appreciate every single one of the Canadians who fought at our side -- but in the overall scope of the conflict, 30,000 is not a large number at all.
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30,000 was not a huge portion of the over 2 million that served in Vietnam.
30,000 was a rather sizable number of Canadian citizens.
Again, Britain didn't even send 30,000 troops to fight in Iraq. Not only did the Canadian government know their citizens were leaving, but this number is a high number. They could have prosecuted and ended it, but they turned a blind eye. Just like if you witness a crime and keep silent, you may be prosecuted as an accessory to that crime under your state's/nation's laws.
And given that a Canadian is a native or inhabitant of Canada, these were Canadian soldiers. They were not there to fight for the Canadian armed forces. But that fact should be seen in the scope of the large number of Canadians fighting in Vietnam, their government allowing them to fight by turning a blind eye, and their government assisting them with a war memorial.
-Rudey