It’s Complicated

My grandfather was among the forgotten Canadians of the Vietnam War, one of the hundreds of observers whom Ottawa sent to facilitate an all too elusive peace. Starting in August 1954, Canada contributed soldiers and civil servants to the International Commission for Supervision and Control, an unusual observer mission meant to facilitate France’s withdrawal from its former colony, monitor civilian and troop movements, and oversee an election to reunite a divided country. There would be no free and fair elections to unify Vietnam, though, and by the time my grandfather arrived in 1965, there was little peace to observe. He landed in Saigon not long after U.S. Marines came ashore at Da Nang.

Infighting among the Canadian, Indian, and Polish troops — each with different national interests at stake — left the commission paralyzed. Joint inspections and reporting were almost impossible; any criticisms were so diluted as to be without value. Canadians understood that...