Le ministre de la Défense confond la bataille de Vimy et le régime de Vichy
Presse Canadienne Le mardi 3 septembre 2002
Toronto - Le ministre de la Défense, John McCallum, s'est attiré les railleries d'historiens canadiens pour avoir confondu Vimy, site d'une victoire canadienne en France pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, et Vichy, capitale du gouvernement du maréchal Pétain sous le régime des occupants nazis.
Dans une lettre adressée au National Post, samedi, le ministre, qui commentait un article antérieur sur son manque de connaissance du désastreux débarquement de Dieppe, en 1942, disait avoir été «mal interprété». Mais il poursuivait en affirmant: «Dieppe, comme Vichy plus de deux décennies plus tôt, témoigne de notre fierté comme nation dans la défense de la liberté et de la justice».
M. McCallum a expliqué lundi avoir voulu dire «Vimy» plutôt que «Vichy». «De toute évidence, c'est une faute de frappe, a-t-il fait valoir en entrevue téléphonique. Je voulais dire Vimy.»
La bataille de la crête de Vimy, en 1917, a été la première au cours de laquelle des troupes canadiennes ont combattu comme corps d'armée distinct. Après avoir livré bataille pendant trois jours, les soldats canadiens ont enlevé la crête jusque-là détenue par les Allemands.
Vichy était la capitale du régime de droite instauré par les Allemands après la chute de la France en 1940.
Jack Granatstein, un historien canadien réputé, a fait remarquer que M. McCallum ne manque pas d'historiens spécialisés dans la chose militaire au sein de son ministère, et qu'il aurait dû les consulter avant de rédiger sa lettre.
Tout en reconnaissant que la méprise trahit «un certain manque d'attention aux détails et une affligeante ignorance en matière d'histoire canadienne», il ne la trouve «pas si grave».
History lesson
Re: Defence Minister Ignorant of Dieppe, Aug. 29.
Contrary to your correspondent's spin, I knew about the Dieppe raid when I was very young. My misinterpreted point was that since I never learned about Dieppe at school, I assume that many other Canadians are and were untaught on this topic. This is a sad omission, since Dieppe, like Vichy more than two decades earlier, attests to our pride as a nation in defence of freedom and justice. The struggle continues across the generations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
John McCallum, Minister of National Defence, Ottawa.
Defence Minister ignorant of Dieppe:
Chris Wattie
'I never learned any of this in school,' McCallum says of 1942 battle
National Post Thursday, August 29, 2002
John McCallum, the Minister of National Defence and titular head of the Canadian Forces, has conceded that until last week, he had never heard about the 5,000 Canadian troops who stormed ashore for the Dieppe raid, one of the greatest military disasters in Canadian history.
The former banker, who was appointed Defence Minister last May, has no military experience beyond four years in his private school's Air Cadet corps and says he has a lot to learn. He replaced Art Eggleton, who was fired.
"I had a pretty good -- you could even say a privileged -- education," Mr. McCallum said during his visit to the French port last week to mark the 60th anniversary of the raid. "But I never learned any of this in school. I haven't even been to Vimy Ridge ... yet.
"This is, in a way, a sort of crash course in the military and military history," he said. "So I'm getting everything all at once: from the [liberation of] the Netherlands or Dieppe to Afghanistan."
Duane Daly, the dominion secretary for the Royal Canadian Legion, was saddened by the Defence Minister's ignorance.
"It's really unfortunate," he said yesterday. "But it's not just McCallum: It's all MPs and Cabinet ministers. So few have any military experience or even knowledge of our history."
Mr. Daly said the ignorance of Canada's leaders reflects broad and long-standing flaws in the teaching of history in Canadian schools, but wished Mr. McCallum well in his "crash course" on military history.
Peter Stoffer, the NDP defence critic, said: "It's incredible that he wouldn't know that. No one can expect him to know about every battle in every war, but Dieppe was one of the most important battles in our history. You would think the Defence Minister would know that."
Leon Benoit, the Canadian Alliance defence critic, said Mr. McCallum's ignorance of things military is in character for the entire federal Cabinet.
"This government shies away from things military," he said. "They feel uncomfortable talking about anything to do with the military, particularly the combat capabilities of our military.
"So I'm not surprised."
Mr. Benoit said he takes some comfort from the Minister's apparent interest in learning about the soldiers, sailors and airmen under his command. "I think he's finally starting to realize the importance of a strong military. And that's a good thing."
To help him make up for lost time, the Minister has arranged for National Defence historians to give him private tours whenever he visits such historic sites as Dieppe.
Last week, an historian walked Mr. McCallum and a handful of aides along the stony beach where Canadian soldiers stormed ashore in 1942, showed them the seawall and the wide esplanade where the town's German defenders mowed down the men, and patiently explained the progress of the battle.
As crowds of French sunbathers stared curiously and gulls wheeled and shrieked overhead, Mr. McCallum was told about the 907 who were killed and nearly 2,000 who were captured, and was given a brief prÈcis of the causes of the disastrous operation.
"It was amazing to me ... It was very moving," he said after his tour. "I have a new respect for the military.
"You can draw a parallel between what these 80-year-old [veterans] did in Europe and what the 18-year-old [Canadian Forces soldiers] did in Afghanistan."
However, the Minister's grasp of historical parallels is not yet perfect. In a speech to veterans of the raid and government officials in Dieppe last week, he vowed: "to do the best I can ... to see that our modern generation of soldiers and airmen and seamen have the same resources to fight for freedom and democracy that you did."
The Canadian army, navy and air force was tiny, ill-equipped and underfunded when the Second World War broke out in 1939.
"I sure hope they're better prepared than we were," one veteran said with a chuckle.
And in an interview shortly after his visit to Dieppe, the Minister evoked the disastrous raid in musing about possible Canadian participation in any U.S. attack on Iraq.
"One thing we can learn from Dieppe is we must not rush into combat. We must be very careful," he said after a ceremony to honour the Canadians killed during the 1942 raid.
Mr. McCallum, whose father was a decorated veteran of the Second World War, is being given the benefit of the doubt by many members of the Canadian Forces and appeared to impress most of the veterans of Dieppe he met last week.
Vimy or Vichy?
The Gazette Wednesday, September 04, 2002
Vimy or Vichy? Well, it was all a long time ago and someplace overseas. It's easy for a busy minister of defence to get mixed up.
We hope John McCallum was more careful with his balance sheets, when he was a banker, than he has been with his history lately, in his defence job. First, he said he'd never heard of the Dieppe raid. Then, in the course of trying to explain that what he meant to say was that he had heard of Dieppe but hadn't much thought about it, he added something about other Canadian battles and mixed up Vimy - a principal Canadian slaughterhouse of World War I - with Vichy, capital of the stooge state set up in the parts of France not occupied by the Germans during World War II.
A politician, the saying goes, can survive anything but ridicule. Mr. McCallum is gasping and floundering and in grave danger of sinking in the stormy seas of public mockery. Too bad he has no functioning search-and-rescue helicopters to come and save him.
A nation that doesn't know Vichy from Vimy
Susan Martinuk
National Post Thursday, September 05, 2002
Last week John McCallum, Canada's Minister of National Defence, stood on the beaches of Dieppe, France, to mark the 60th anniversary of one of the most disastrous battles in our military history. In doing so, he made modern political history by admitting that he had no idea what he was doing. He frankly conceded, that until the previous week, he had never heard of the battle of Dieppe.
Since then, our number one military man has been publicly pilloried by veterans, politicians and bemused historians. Mr. McCallum then decided to use an offensive manoeuvre and respond to critics in a letter to the editor of this paper. Wise tactic -- but he sustained huge losses when he mistakenly compared the Dieppe battle to "Vichy" (the Nazi capital of occupied France) rather than to "Vimy [Ridge]," the site of Canada's most famous battle in the First World War.
Like Dieppe, Mr. McCallum's PR battle was a dismal failure.
Sadly, we shouldn't be surprised by these events. Our public ignorance of Canada's past has been well documented by The Dominion Institute, a group dedicated to educating Canadians about their common history and civic traditions. In a 1997 survey, only 33% of young Canadians (those aged 18-25) recognized 1867 as the date of Confederation. Even worse, another 33% couldn't even name the century in which it occurred. In 2000, only 23% of Canadians passed a basic history quiz; in 2001, a mere 17% could correctly answer six of the 10 questions on Canada's citizenship test.
In April, 2002, Canadians were asked to identify the famous First World War victory where the Canadian military captured a "key ridge." Despite the overt hint, just 36% knew it was Vimy Ridge.
Oh, Canada. Tsk. Tsk.
Clearly, Mr. McCallum isn't alone in his ignorance of history. But -- and this is rather unfortunate for him -- he now symbolizes that consequences of our neglect for our past. That is, we now have a military and political leader who, despite a highly privileged education, doesn't know the basic military/Canadian history that undergirds the very forces he governs.
If Mr. McCallum merely reflects our collective amnesia, then why should his gaffes matter?
Firstly, because knowledge of our common history connects each of us to the larger story of Canada. A common memory creates a common bond and a mutual understanding.
As our nation becomes increasingly multicultural and conducts its affairs in a global marketplace, there is an all-too-evident struggle to live as united citizens with common goals and a strong national identity. But knowing what we have collectively achieved can give us both purpose and optimism to overcome new challenges and cultural difficulties with an innovative spirit.
Secondly, history reminds us that Canada has heroes -- even as a look at the despairing state of our own culture reminds us that we desperately need heroes.
In Western culture, heroism has been replaced by or confused with stardom and a fascination with celebrity. The ideal of heroism has been further tainted as the mass media tear down those whose model of greatness has somehow been deemed imperfect. As a result of these misguided and cynical intentions, we have successfully squelched the natural impulse of young people to emulate and idealize those who accomplish great things.
But in the wake of Sept. 11, such cynicism has waned. Heroism is back in vogue and popular culture is once again encouraging the growth of virtues such as courage and self-sacrifice. We saw heroism in the acts of firefighters, soldiers and rescue workers -- and suddenly there was a desire to emulate it. But we shouldn't have had to look south of the border.
Models of true heroism (Laura Secord, Terry Fox, Arthur Currie) are present throughout Canada's history. We just forgot to mention them. We've neglected to tell their stories and use them to challenge and motivate our young people to live as citizens whose actions can -- and will -- shape the future of Canada.
In The Decline of Greatness, author A.M. Schlesinger, Jr. writes that we shouldn't be complacent about our ability to get along without great men. "If our society has lost its wish for heroes and its ability to produce them, it may well turn out to have lost everything else as well."
Indeed. As our past slips away, so does our future. Mr. McCallum would do well to familiarize himself with the stories of Canada and its heroes -- and then use them to stimulate public ambition, to inspire great acts of heroism and to remind Canadians of their common purpose and identity.
