While surfing the internet one night a dozen or so years ago, I happened upon a somewhat sparsely filled webpage that was dedicated to those that had resisted the war in Vietnam, namely, by resisting or evading the draft, or by deserting the U.S. military. In his effort to seemingly be as thorough as he could be with what little, (I was soon to discover) he had to work with, the author of the page, whose name, I'm sorry to say I don't believe I ever got, made a number of mentions of several war resistance groups based in the United States at that time such as, The American Friends Service Committee, The War Resistance League and Vietnam Veterans Against The War. All, fine and diligent organizations, and all of which I worked in conjunction with at one time or another back then. However, he made only the slightest mention whatsoever of any of the groups and organizations outside of the United States, specifically in Canada, that aided literally thousands upon thousands, by far, the largest number of American draft resisters and deserters during the Vietnam War era.

At first I was puzzled by this, thinking surely such an oversight could not possibly go unnoticed by the author, then I started looking for information on these groups myself. To my astonishment I found only a handful of items that even mentioned any of the Canadian based war resistance organizations that existed during the Vietnam War. One mentioned the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme several times and another referenced The Montreal Council To Aid War Resisters once. Granted, I did not do a headlong, in-depth subject search of the entire internet, in part because, Google was still just a number back then, nonetheless I found it strange that so little information was readily available on the information highway that dealt with these groups, groups who were once such a visible and vocal part of one of America's most trying times. Feeling the need to fill at least a portion of that void, and perhaps simply because, "the time is right", I have taken it upon myself to offer my perspective and reflections on a "cause" I sincerely believe made a significant impact on ending both the war in Vietnam and the draft, and to this day, believe sincerely, that we were 100% right, and justified in our actions.

In the roughly nine years or so that The Montreal Council To Aid War Resisters existed in one form or another, it technically became the American Refugee Service in late 1971, I was its Director for three and a half of those years. I was its Director who oversaw its day to day operations during those years, represented it to the press and media doing interviews with nearly every major news outlet in the world from Time Magazine to 60 Minutes, Le Monde, the BBC, AP, UPI, etc. I was also its Director on the day we, as resisters scored our first real victory and the draft was finally put to death, and on the day that so-called "President Ford" announced a so-called "amnesty" for draft resisters, and on the day that the never "declared" Vietnam War was "officially" declared over, and on the one thousand days in between. I was also there on the day that it came time to close its doors for the last time. A day, by the way, that I can still clearly recall sometimes even now, almost forty years later.

I claim no degree of literary mastery, I do not intend for this to be some long, drawn out epic endeavor. Hell, I won't even be able to keep everything in the right order...It's been almost forty years! I simply want to relate a few truths about a subject that I was a major part of and one that "was", and always will be, a major part of me. This text will change no doubt as I write it. That is, I'm certain a helluva' lot of memories will come back to me as I deliver this message to print. In the meantime, this is how it was.