On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 06:32:56 -0800, Poor, Edmund W Edmund.W.Poor@abc.com wrote:
Whether or not _government_ of Canada sent "troops in Canadian uniform" to Vietnam is a another thing. There are three points of view on this sub-point:
- No Canadian troops *whatsoever* were sent "by the Canadian
government" to Vietnam (in any capacity).
- Some Canadian troops were sent by the Canadian government, and the
"served" in Vietnam (but not as combat troops).
- The Canadian sent substantial number of active duty soldiers (with
weapons) to Vietnam, but they never (or hardly ever) shot at North Vietnamese soldiers or Viet Cong fighters.
I agree with your breakdown of the various interpretations on this matter. I also agree that 1) and 4) appear to be false.
I don't think 3) is true either, since the only deployment I know of, from web searches anyway, is this ICCS thing (Operation Gallant), which Tony Sidaway has also commented on. But these were non-aligned peacekeepers, which I presume is exclusive from active duty soldiers.
To me, Coulter's context unambiguously suggests that the troops provided were provided to fight alongside the Americans.
So, as far as I can tell, there seem to have been no troops sent by the Canadian government to Vietnam to assist the American side. To me, this makes Coulter's claim unambiguously wrong.
The article should note this. However, it should also mention the possible charitable explanations for her false claim, by mentioning Canadians who enlisted in the U.S. army and the peacekeeping Operation Gallant, or possibly just providing a link to the relevant section of [[Canada and the Vietnam War]], since much of the content would be the same. We should of course also mention how this claim is interpreted by her critics.
Coulter's slant is that she was wrong (but she seems to regard it as a misstatement more akin to a slip of the tongue or choosing the wrong word.
Yes, that seems to be her take on things.
Moore's slant is that she was dead wrong (probably even *knowingly* wrong, i.e., lied on purpose; or possibly just ignorantly wrong, i.e., thought it was the government sending active duty personnel).
I do not this incident or any of the facts about Vietnam and Canada suffice to prove that Coulter is or is not a deliberate liar. (My personal conclusion is that, like many claims she has made before, she was simply pulling facts from memory and hoping they were right, or at least not challenged.)
Steve