-
6. A Change in Direction: Starving, Knitting, and Caring for Vietnam
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
161 chapter six A Change in Direction Starving, Knitting, and Caring for Vietnam One October morning in 1968 Claire Culhane began a ten-day hunger strike and demonstration on Parliament Hill to protest what she considered to be the Canadian government’s hypocritical position on the war in Vietnam. Culhane, a fifty-year-old mother of two grown daughters, took this action after conventional lobbying techniques failed to get Parliament to address her scathing report about her experiences managing a Canadian-funded medical clinic in South Vietnam. Culhane, who had a background in health administration, had been inspired to work in Vietnam after reading a Weekend Magazine article about a Canadian medical team providing health care for Vietnamese civilians living in Quang Ngai province, a region heavily affected by the war. The magazine’s cover featured a photo of Quebec nurse Louise Piché holding a Vietnamese baby and behind her a long line of Vietnamese children waiting for immunization, ostensibly representing the endless need for assistance.1 Having been interested in what she called “the international character of the struggle for human rights” since she was a teenage girl horrified by the Spanish Civil War, Culhane felt she could be of use in Vietnam despite her misgivings about the war.2 Most likely ignorant of her past membership in the Communist Party, the Department of External Aid hired Culhane to be the administrator of their new antituberculosis clinic. Culhane stayed in Quang Ngai for only eight months before returning to Canada in a state of shock, appalled not at the desperate 162 Abroad situation of the Vietnamese people—that was to be expected—but at what she considered a betrayal by the Canadian government. In Quang Ngai, Culhane claimed to have witnessed the “sham of our medical aid program in South Vietnam,” what she believed to be a “front for intelligence activities” conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency. It was her opinion that the clinic’s “main purpose [was] to serve the military needs of the U.S. in Vietnam, and not the needs of the Vietnamese people.”3 Culhane insisted the humanitarian project was being undermined by political motivations that, among other things, instructed the staff to provide patient information to American military personnel and prevented them from treating suspected Viet Cong patients. Once she was back in Canada, Culhane was debriefed by Maurice Strong, head of the Department of External Aid, with whom she detailed her belief that it was worthless for Canadians to offer support to the Vietnamese in the face of the larger corruptions. She offered Strong this analogy: If an Armada of 100 planes were to suddenly bomb Albert Street [in Ottawa], where we were sitting, and the last two planes, bearing Red Cross markings, were to swoop down to patch up survivors, would we appreciate such attention ? Why should the Vietnamese people be expected to be grateful for that kind of “aid”?4 Although Strong listened to her, Culhane got the impression that he did not truly understand the politics involved, so she later sent a sixteen-page report about her experiences in Quang Ngai to every member of Parliament. When this failed to get the government’s attention, she held a ten-day vigil and fast on Parliament Hill, an event endorsed by VOW, asking the government to investigate the compromised neutrality of their aid program and cancel Canada’s defence contracts with the United States. Her protest was widely covered by the media, who were struck by a woman of Culhane’s age taking such a radical action; they nicknamed her the “Fasting Grandmother.”5 In the last hour of her fast, Culhane was invited to meet with Prime Minister Trudeau. According to Culhane’s memories of the event, Trudeau never had any plans to take her seriously, since as soon as she began to speak about her wishes for Canada to declare an unconditional halt to the bombing in Vietnam, Trudeau’s secretary appeared to escort him to a dinner engagement.6 When the press asked Trudeau and Mitchell Sharp, Secretary of State for External Affairs, to comment on Culhane’s stand, they dismissed her concerns, calling her only a “casual observer” of affairs in Vietnam.7 [54.144.95.36] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 17:54 GMT) A Change in Direction 163 Undeterred, Culhane refused to let the government or the national conscience off the hook, so she spent the next five years speaking and writing about her experience...