Land of a Million Elephants: Memoirs of a Canadian Peacekeeper

J.L. Granatstein, distinguished research professor emeritus of history
at York University, is the author of Who Killed Canadian History?, and
co-author of The Canadian 100: The 100 Most Influential Canadians of the
20th Century and the Dictionary of Canad

Although few Canadians are even aware of it, Canada had a long
involvement in the Vietnam War. The International Control Commissions,
created by the Geneva Conference of 1954, put Canadians, Indians, and
Poles into a truce supervision role in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, the
three successor states of French Indo-China, a role that was conducted
more often in war than in peace. John de Domenico, then a young
artillery officer, was a member of the first group of Canadian ICC
members, and his account of his tour has some value.

This is no detailed scholarly study, nor is it a daily diary. Instead
de Domenico recollects the relative chaos in getting the Canadian ICC
teams to Asia, what life was like in Laos, the difficulties of working
with the Communist Poles and neutral Indians, and how the Canadians
struggled to survive in a strange climate. He writes about the Laotians
on a superficial level; offers descriptions of Hanoi, Saigon, and Hong
Kong, all places he briefly visited; and includes a few words about the
senior officers under whom he served. What gives this book its value is
that it is one of the very few peacekeeping memoirs we have.

De Domenico also had the sense to have General Jim Tedlie write a
foreword. The General notes caustically that today, just as in 1954,
Canada suffers from an “always willing, never ready attitude” to
peacekeeping. That says it all.