This post was originally made by me at “Blatherings” on 13 February 2005. It is repeated here due to revival of interest on the topic. (Video of Ann Coulter and Bob McKeown on CBC)
Or as present day Canadians so quaintly say, “Canada … took a pass on Vietnam” (Canada’s CBC spokesman, Bob McKeown, January 2005). “QUIET COMPLICITY: CANADIAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE VIETNAM WAR (1986) Between the Lines”
At first glance, a fair-minded person would say that both McKeown and Coulter were correct. Ann Coulter said “Canada sent troops to Vietnam,” which is certainly true in 1973, although she was probably thinking of the tens of thousands of Canadians who everyone knows were in service with American forces during the Vietnam era. Bob McKeown said “Canada didn’t send troops to Vietnam.” and if he was meaning the government of Canada, he would have been correct also.
Neither McKeown nor Coulter specified “the Canadian government.” However — Coulter never backed away from her original statement, although she may not have known the circumstances of the Canadian troops being in Vietnam. But McKeown embellished his statement, saying that “Canada … took a pass on Vietnam,” a statement that cannot be accepted by any fair-minded person. A polite person could say that Bob McKeown was ignorant of Canadian history. A more realistic person would say that Bob McKeown, spokesman of the Canadian government’s CBC, was misleading the Canadian people by rewriting history.
[...] Canada’s Quiet Complicity [...]