“These Are the Things You Gain If You Make Our Country Your Country”: U.S.–Vietnam War Draft Resisters and Military Deserters and the Meaning of Citizenship in North America in the 1970s

In the mid‐1970s, many U . S . citizens who had not complied with the requirement that they participate in the military of the U nited S tates during the V ietnam W ar faced a dilemma. In the preceding decade, tens of thousands of them had immigrated to C anada—both legally and illegally—to resist compulsory military service. Richard N ixon refused to allow these resisters to return to the U nited S tates. His successor, G erald F ord, allowed expatriates to return if they agreed to do alternative service. Jimmy C arter attempted to resolve the crisis with an amnesty. Canada did not participate in the V ietnam W ar and refused to extradite A merican men to the U nited S tates for violations of most conscription and military laws. However, in 1973, in the middle of an immigration crisis, C anada forced the hand of many A mericans and others who had entered the country clandestinely by giving them only sixty days to reconcile their residency status with the C anadian government or to risk becoming illegal immigrants and to face deportation. The shifting matrix of laws on both sides of the U . S .– C anada border forced A merican exiles to decide whether to risk having a status that officially satisfied neither country, to accept the terms of the F ord or C arter repatriation plans and reclaim the perquisites of life in the U nited S tates, to remain illegal immigrants in C anada, or to acquire C anadian citizenship. Residency in C anada opened the possibility for a different type of citizenship for A merican men, one less concerned with their potential contribution to the military might of a nation and more tolerant of their freedom of expression, which might include opposition to war.