Robert McNamara's Gifts to Canada

Though Michael Jackson’s death and funeral have dominated (or should I say obliterated?) the news of late, for many of my generation—who remember Michael when he was but an urchin strutting his stuff on TV—the death of Robert McNamara is a more resonant occasion. McNamara, forever labeled as the architect of the Vietnam War, is a far more complex and historically compelling figure than any entertainer could ever be. Though it was hard to love Robert McNamara--technocrat, rationalist, planner par excellence--he was, in his own unintended fashion, generous to Canada.

A few day ago I got together for coffee with a friend who came north as a Vietnam draft dodger. Canada had a generation of young American men who crossed the border and made their lives here. My friend migrated to Montreal, got a job loading aircraft for Air Canada, learned French, married a francophone, and has published three books of well-respected poetry. He is but one of the 20-30,000 educated youth who came north rather than be shipped to the war McNamara was overseeing.

There’s a long list of draft dodgers who contributed significantly to Canada. They were fortunate to arrive in a different era and a different politics. Soldiers who have recently sought asylum in Canada, so they don’t have to serve in Iraq, have been turned down. In July of ’08 Canada deported a U.S. soldier for the first time. What McNamara bequeathed to Canada many years ago, and Canada courageously accepted, Bush and Rumsfeld bequeathed again albeit in smaller quantities. This time however, Canada’s courage failed.