A new book shares the stories of Americans fleeing from being drafted into the military during the Vietnam War.
The author, Joline Martin, will be hosting events in Courtenay, Comox, Port McNeill and Sointula this fall in support of the book's release.
The book is titled War Resisters, Standing Against the Vietnam War and it sheds light on Americans who refused the Vietnam War draft or the war effort and fled to Canada to build new lives.
"A couple of things really compelled me to write about it," said Martin, the Courtenay-based author. "One is that it dawned on me that it's been 50 years since the fall of Saigon. I wanted to make sure that people remembered what happened and that we capture the story of the war resisters who came to Canada, brought their skills to Canada, and became a part of this country."
Martin, an American raised in Illinois, decided to leave the United States when on May 4,1970, the day of the Kent State Shootings. The Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the Cambodian campaign of the Vietnam War, when a coalition of South Vietnam, the United States, and Thailand intervened in the Cambodian Civil War and expanded the Vietnam War after a pro-U.S. general came to power in the Khmer Republic.
U.S. President Richard Nixon had announced the expansion on April 30, a day after South Vietnamese forces invaded eastern Cambodia, where North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces had established bases. Four unarmed students were killed, and another nine were injured. The 28 National Guard soldiers shot 67 rounds in roughly 13 seconds.
"My thought was that I had to get out of this place, so that's what I did. I left a few years later when I got my first degree," said Martin.
Outrage over the Kent State Shootings spread across the nation, particularly at the campuses of universities. Just four days later, members of the New Mexico National Guard bayonetted 11 people (all survived) at the University of New Mexico.
Martin said a friend also told a story about the friend's father, which is included in the book. The father was a border guard in Emerson, Manitoba, which borders the states of Minnesota and North Dakota.
"She told me the story about her father helping to get these guys in without asking any questions," she said. "And literally it really jogged my memory of how the Vietnam War changed my life and brought me to this country."
Martin says it's important to look at and understand the social history of the people who fled the United States to Canada. She says it took them great courage to come, not knowing if they could ever go home.
Labelled cowards, draft dodgers, and losers, many of them fled, not knowing if the FBI was after them or on some sort of list. Nor did they know how dangerous the border crossings could be.
"But they knew they couldn't be a part of (the war) and that takes incredible courage, whereas the contemporary view at the time was that they were cowards. They weren't cowards. They had great courage," said Martin. "The stories go into showing the compassion of the people in Canada and the U.S. who formed an underground network and got them into this country, and the compassion in Canada that let them settle, and the compassion that the war resisters show every day in their lives here in Canada."
It is important, Martin says, that people look at the raw information, as detailed in her book about these people.
"I can assure you that in Campbell River there are many war resisters. Within Courtenay, I had no problem finding war resisters here. There are thousands. So the numbers are way under-reported."
Martin interviewed 12 people for her book: 10 men and two women. Only one of them came out of the Comox Valley, coming from Victoria. Both of the women came with their partners.
Martin says they found her, opposed to the other way. She would have a discussion with one of them, and they would lead her to another subject. Since she has finished the book, she has found more, including one who attends her book club. She had no idea. They're everywhere, she says.
"What is unique about war resisters is that they did not form a diaspora. They integrated into society. They did that not out of a need to hide but of a need to belong to a community and contribute ... For the U.S., it was a huge brain drain, and guess what, we're back there," she adds.
Her book launch event on Oct. 18 in Courtenay will be accompanied by filmmaker Patricia Gruben's Heart of Gold, released in 2023. Heart of Gold is a feature film about a U.S. Army soldier who fled the country in 1969 to Canada, sheltered by a Doukhobor family. Tickets for the event are $10, with the screening at 1 p.m. and the book launch at 2:30. The event will take place at the Filberg Centre on Oct. 18.
Martin will be hosting events on Denman Island on Oct. 19 (Denman Island Activity Centre 1 p.m.), Port McNeill on Nov. 1 (The Book Shelf, noon to 2 p.m.) and at the Sointula Museum on Nov. 2 (1 to 3 p.m.). She will also be at the Comox Vancouver Regional Library on Nov. 8 from 2 to 4 p.m. and the Courtenay Vancouver Island Regional Library on November 29th 2 to 4pm.
