The Peacekeeping Exhibit at the Diefenbunker (2011 to 2020)

In remembrance of this important part of what Canada did during the Cold War, in 2011 I got permission from the bunker’s Board of Directors to construct an exhibit on Canadian Peacekeeping in the Diefenbunker, CCWM. I was largely responsible for the design and actualization of this exhibit. Having been on such a mission I felt reasonably qualified to do this. Fortunately I still had military friends who had participated in many of the peacekeeping missions Canada had been involved with since the original UNEF mission and I was able to persuade them to lend some of their souvenirs for this Peacekeeping exhibit. I was able construct this exhibit fairly inexpensively by using some of the surplus exhibits cases that the museum had acquired over the years…the rest I paid for out of my own pocket. This exhibit was closed by the bunker staff in late fall 2021. The above (albeit) crude poster is still mounted on the wall in that room. (I was recently was able to take a picture of it.) – Dave Peters

Note: Not all peacekeeping mission that Canada undertook were under the auspices of the UN. The ICCS South Viet Nam 1973 (see the pictures and text below) is an example.

The International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS) was organized along the same lines as its largely ineffective predecessor, the ICSC. With the withdrawal of the United States from Vietnam, the United States had asked Canada to participate in the (new) International Commission for Control and Supervision (ICCS). Canada agreed, on the condition that Canada could withdraw if the ICCS proved to be non-effective. (which happened in July 1973). A ceasefire had gone into effect a few days before the Canadian delegation had arrived in January 1973. The Canadians held the senior appointments in administration, communications,transportation and investigation of prisoner exchanges. Mobile and site teams were set up in South Viet Nam’s controlled ports of entry with some teams set up in Viet Cong stronghold areas. The observer often found themselves under heavy fire. In 1974 after the targeted killing of some ICCS members Canadians withdrew from Viet Nam. Two military and one diplomat Canadians were killed during this mission.