- Title:
- No protection and no peace: Canada and the International Commission for Supervision and Control in Laos, 1954-1975
- Creator:
- Lynhiavu, Tou Chu Dou
- Date Created:
- 2003
- Degree Awarded:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Subjects:
- peace keeping internationalism Geneva Conference
- Geographical Focus:
- Canada Laos
- Supporting Materials:
- n/a
- Description:
- In 1954, Canada embarked upon one of its first “peace-keeping” endeavours. The 1954 Geneva Conference (co-chaired by Britain and the Soviet Union) ended French colonial rule in Indochina, and Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam emerged as independent countries. Three International Commissions for Supervision and Control (ICSC) would oversee the implementation of the Geneva Accords in the new states. The Co-Chairmen, as a consequence of a suggestion by the Chinese, invited Canada, along with India and Poland, to be a member of each of the ICSCs. The Laos ICSC adjourned in 1958. It was reactivated in 1961 and ended in 1975. It is that ICSC, and Canada’s part in it, which is the subject of this inquiry. This thesis focuses on Canada’s motives, objectives and behaviour while a member of the Laos ICSC between 1954 and 1975. It provides an opportunity to evaluate the validity of the points of view put forward by the complicity and constraint schools on Canadian performance in Indochina. The thesis’s central argument is that Canada’s participation in the Laos ICSC represented a genuine attempt to be a serious internationalist within the boundaries of the Geneva framework. For almost twenty years, Canada, despite many frustrations, carried on in the tradition of the quiet, flexible and committed diplomatist. In the end, however, the ICSC had little or no positive effect on the most crucial issues: Laotian territorial integrity, the Royal Lao Government’s sovereignty and the re-integration of the Lao communists, the Pathet Lao, into Laotian national political life. The ICSC became more and more of an observer, unable to provide protection or ensure peace.
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- Lynhiavu, Tou Chu Dou. 2003. "No protection and no peace: Canada and the International Commission for Supervision and Control in Laos, 1954-1975", Department of History, Carleton University
- Link to this page:
- https://cuhistory.github.io/grads/items/hist_167.html
Rights
- Rights:
- Copyright the author, all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.