The American Deserters Committee (ADC) of

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada was a group of

American Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

members who deserted their posts and went to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

to avoid the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. The deserters were aided in their efforts by groups such as

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...

, the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California ...

, the Revolutionary Union, The Resistance,

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends ('' Quaker)-founded'' organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by ...

War Resisters League The War Resisters League (WRL) is the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States, having been founded in 1923. History Founded in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I, it is a section of the London-based War Resisters' ...

and the Committee for Peace and Freedom. ADC was formed by a group of politically active deserters, including David Beauchesne in December 1968, modeled on existing Deserters' Committees in

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and

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. ADC members included both deserters and their spouses and girlfriends, and welcomed other expatriate Americans who shared their views. Though ADC retained almost total ideological independence, it sought donations from various sources. ADC published a newsletter called ADC Times. By the early summer of 1970, friction within ADC began to emerge over the group's inner circle of founders and colleagues, who had begun calling themselves the "Central Committee." The Committee was seen by many as increasingly autocratic and undemocratic, adopting a radical,

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

agenda, and discouraging dissent. In 1971, the ADC merged with the MCAWR, forming the American Refugee Service.

References

Anti–Vietnam War groups Desertion 1968 establishments in Canada Organizations established in 1968 1971 disestablishments in Canada Organizations disestablished in 1971 {{US-org-stub

See also

References