Dear correspondent or former reader of my
newsletters, -
It's been 50 years since the end of the War
on Vietnam. If you were ever wondering what happened to the
50,000 of us who immigrated - legally - to Canada, rather than
participate in the pointless killing,and terrorizing of
millions of Vietnamese, then you have got to read
"Resisterville," see HERE
or
https://nationalpost.com/feature/resisterville-50000-evaders-fled-the-u-s-and-changed-canada
, Annushka Agarwal's just-published article in the National
Post, one of Canada's two national newspapers. Although the
Post is conservative, "Resisterville" is the best article
about us I've ever seen. We come across not as Heroes or
Cowards, but as the caring, complicated, vulnerable people
that we were (and are).
The writer interviewed dozens of us for the
piece, and I show up in it briefly three times, once as part
of the draft counseling group in Toronto (and author of its
notorious Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada), once as
founder and proprietor of "The Last Resort," a giant hostel
for draft dodgers and military deserters in Vancouver, and
finally in the fourth-to-last paragraph.
In addition, the newspaper staff edited
Agarwal's hour-long Zoom interview of me into a 24-minute
video that is attached to the article and is also available on
YouTube, go HERE
. After taking one peek, I couldn't bear to watch or listen -
once again, I was looking down at my interviewer rather than
directly into the Zoom cam, and I appear to be ancient,
agitated, and blind, imagine that! But they're running it
anyway, so hopefully it has some merit.
Alas, Agarwal didn't mention my recent book,
Up From Socialism: My 60-Year Search for a Healing New Radical
Politics (Bombardier Books, distributed by Simon &
Schuster, 2023), even though it includes a 10,000-word chapter
providing the most honest and compelling account of the draft
dodger operation in Toronto that has been or can ever be
written. She received the book, and said she'd try to mention
it; perhaps her conservative editors said no. But I am happy
to give you a link for it HERE
.
All best, - Mark Satin / Oakland CA
