History by definition is the chronological record of the events and defining moments in society. By its very nature, it focuses on the history-makers of societies: the presidents, the revolutionaries, the generals. However, these men represent only a select portion of the participants in history. As the historian Donald Graves remarks, “Much of history...is the history of generals, not of soldiers.”[1] The vast majority of the participants become overlooked as their experiences and stories are generalized, and therefore marginalized. Their individual stories and voices are lost amongst the crowd. These stories do have, however, a unique and “individual experience which is commonplace, and yet at the same time particular.”[2] Oral history is the process of using each individual story to come across unique discoveries on topics or events which have been generalized, therefore finding new perspectives and ideas. Thus, oral historians create a new and “somehow purer image of direct experience” through this process.[3] It is a description and product of experience, rather than an abstracted and ordered rendering from an outside source.[4] Through the use of oral history, one is able to learn about the experiences of the regular soldiers and events; about the life the listener would have lead, had they been there.
Through this oral history project between the University of Victoria and the Royal United Services Institute of Vancouver Island, I had the honour of interviewing three veterans of United Nations Peacekeeping missions. Peacekeeping is an endeavour which is viewed as extremely important by both the Canadian people and the Canadian government. Peacekeeping has been as source of pride, honour, and national identity for Canada: a country which wants to define itself and its foreign policy as ‘special’ and unique.[5] Canada has participated in almost every United Nations mission, sending over 120,000 Canadian Armed Forces personnel overseas for these endeavours.[6] The interviewees for this project have served in various United Nations peacekeeping missions, spanning over the years 1964 to 1978 and over three continents. Although all three of the interviewees served in different missions, at different times in their lives, there are many commonalities found within their oral histories. A major commonality found is the “human face” they are able to put onto history.[7] These interviews depict the lives of men, not faceless soldiers, and in doing so, they add a human element not found in the regular historical analysis. They describe lives which contain large amounts of normalcy and routine in between conflicts. While one can readily find statistics of the troops serving in Cyprus and the statistics of causalities, it is often hard to find information about the peacekeepers themselves and their lives during the missions. Interviews with the veterans of United Nations Peacekeeping missions are an asset to one’s knowledge of the missions, because they are able to create a description of the missions removed from a statistical and political analysis, and instead focused on the descriptions of the lives of the peacekeepers themselves.
Dr. G. W. Steven Brodsky was the first veteran interviewed for this project. He has served in both the United Nations Forces in Cyprus from 1964-1965, and with the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan from 1977-78. Although Dr. Brodsky did have his Bachelors degree by the time he served in Cyprus, and later would complete both his Master and Doctorate degrees, he was only a teenager when he joined the military. Dr. Brodsky joined the army as a reservist when he was fifteen, after seeing a newspaper advertisement for drummers in the army. When Dr. Brodsky enlisted in the regular army after turning eighteen, he had no intention of becoming a peacekeeper. Instead, he had every thought of going to fight in the Korean War and experience “any possible adventure and mayhem that [he] could.”[8] When Dr. Brodsky served in Cyprus he was a 31 year old intelligence officer, and while in Kashmir he was a 44 year old Major with the post of UN Field Station Officer-In-Charge.
The second interviewee, Major R. A. Derkson, is currently an officer for the Intelligence Architecture Joint Task Force for the 2010 Olympic Games. Maj. Derkson joined the military as a young man as well. He had decided to join the military with the intention of getting a ‘cool’ full-time job, after seeing a photo in the newspaper of Canadian Airborne Regiment soldiers jumping out of a Hercules aircraft. Maj. Derkson had been so eager to join the military that he drove from Nanaimo to Victoria on his seventeenth birthday, not realizing the office would be closed on Saturdays.[9] Maj. Derkson served in the United Nations Forces in Cyprus mission in 1974. Although he achieved his Bachelors degree and many promotions after serving with the United Nations Forces in Cyprus, Maj. Derkson had originally dropped out of school after completing Grade 10. At the time he served in Cyprus, he was only 22 years old and had the job as a steward in the officer’s mess.
The final interview conducted for this project was with Lieutenant Colonel Paul Paone, currently a logistics officer in the Canadian Army reserve. As with the other two interviewees, Lt Col. Paone joined the military as a teenager. In fact, Lt. Col. Paone had discovered through his friends that the army would pay its soldiers to learn how to drive, and this was his primary reason for joining the army.[10] Lt. Col. Paone served in the United Nations Emergency Forces II in Egypt and the Golan Heights in 1974-75. He had volunteered for this UN peacekeeping mission after completing his first year of education at the University of Victoria. He decided to volunteer because he had heard from his colleagues, many of which had served in the first UNEF, that it was an important experience to “see different parts of the world [in order to] appreciate Canada more afterwards.”[11] He had been looking for a challenge and a change, as well as an opportunity to travel to a foreign land.[12] Lt. Col. Paone was 19 years old when he served with the UNEF II as a corporal vehicle driver.
As we can gleam from these backgrounds, these men were all fairly young individuals, with various levels of education at the time when they served in the UN peacekeeping missions. As well, these men were not in the positions to create protocol or policies. They were all directly responsible to another officer, and are representative of the majority of the Canadian Military.
One striking similarity between the interviews is how their descriptions of their lives seem very normal and routine. They describe their lives as having standard working schedules with set days of service. As Maj. Derkson recalls, “It was almost like a holiday, since life had settled into a nice dull routine and nobody was going to get hurt. Just do your job for eight hours and on your weekend off go travel anywhere.[13] He remembers the men going touring in the mountains or down to the beach, waterskiing, scuba diving, and taking Greek dancing lessons during their time off in Cyprus.[14] He states that, “prior to the war, a lot of Europeans were going to Cyprus for holidays too, such as the Germans and the Swiss. We were just like the other tourists.”[15] This was emphasized as the soldiers went touring to sites such as King Richard’s Castle, exploring monasteries, and visiting beaches. In Egypt, this practice was continued. Lt. Col. Paone remembers how they were encouraged to get off the base. “They set up tours for us. I saw the pyramids.”[16] In fact, they could take their leave anywhere. Lt. Col. Paone states that a lot of men flew to Germany on a military aircraft for their leave, while he himself frequently travelled to Israel, or drove down from Cairo to Suez City, and spent the afternoon at the beach.[17]
Not only were the troops able to travel frequently to outside countries, they also were able spent a lot of leisure time within their host country as well. Beaches and hotels were frequently patronized by United Nations soldiers in Cyprus. Dr. Brodsky recalls that:
There were a couple of resort hotels on the north coast of Cyprus, one was called Dome and the other was called the Rock Ruby...A number of our troops when they got an opportunity to have some transport and take some time off, would be taken down to these hotels where there were bars, and would have a drink.[18]
The soldiers would also frequent beaches in their areas. In Cyprus, there would sometimes be recreation trucks that would take soldiers to the north shore where they could:
Spend maybe an hour or two hours at the beach having a swim and then they would be transported back. These recreation runs of course always required an armed escort, armed sentry, but the bulk of the troops were able to go swimming without carrying riffles around. Snorkelling became quite popular.[19]
The men had the ability to act as tourists oftentimes, even though they were on missions of extreme importance: missions to keep peace and prevent war.
These descriptions of normal work routines with set hours and days seem quite out of place in a history about military missions. However, it is suggested that because it was such an economic benefit to the Cypriots in having the United Nations troops there to patronize their country, that everything would usually be “very peaceful and calm until UN mandate came up for renewal. Then there would be a smattering of small arms fire et cetera. It would be just enough that mandate was renewed.” [20] Dr. Brodsky also points out that many of the hotels and resorts had fallen on hard times and were “only too happy to host the UN troops.”[21]
While there were many periods of normalcy, sometimes the soldiers were brought back to reality of their situation while they were serving in the missions. Maj. Derkson recalls one incident where from when he was driving about and saw a vintage Greek Tank from the World War Two era.
There was a really old Greek tank right out of WWII, and I had a camera with me and I stopped to take a picture, more as a tourist thing than anything else, we were in uniform, and the next thing I know there was a Greek Cypriot soldier running up to me and he stuck his rifle at the side of my head and said to give him the film out of the camera. I said it was just an old tank, no intelligence value, but he got the film anyways.[22]
Dr. Brodsky recalls one incident when he went to tavern in Kyrena. He found himself “dancing to Greek music with this chap, as men dance with men there, and as his coat flew aside, I saw the big .45 gun on his hip, and I thought, what the hell am I doing here?” He then states that when he got back to the base, he found out that the man had once been a member of the EOKA terrorist organization.
In another incident, Maj. Derkson recalls that one time their convoy, under the leadership of Captain Mike Walker, was blocked by a Turkish Cypriot army, who did not want to let them pass.
The Turkish officer was quite adamant about not letting us through, and I remember our captain, although we couldn’t exactly hear what he was saying, he took his beret off and threw it on the ground, and reached in his pocket for his maroon beret, and he said, “I will tell my troops to put on their maroon berets, and we will no longer be peacekeepers, and we will force and we will fight our way through here,” or something to that effect. We could hear a little bit, but it was more of the actions that we could see. And it was quite dramatic and the Turkish officer relented, and let us pass. So there were little conflicts like that.[23]
These ‘little conflicts’ are not recorded in history books, however, because the soldiers involved were able to diffuse the situation before shots were fired and a real conflict ensued. These conflicts do, however, remind the listener that the men were in the middle of tense conflicts.
Lt. Col. Paone, as well, was brought sharply back into the reality of their situation as peacekeepers one day in the summer of 1974. However, his incident was not diffused as the other incidents had been. Instead, Lt. Col. Paone remembers vividly an incident which involved an act of war, when a Canadian Buffalo aircraft was shot down by Syrian forces on the ninth of August.[24] Part of Lt. Col. Paone’s duties was to help load airplanes with cargo, and he was involved preparing the Buffalo’s mission the day it was shot down. In fact, Lt. Col. Paone states that he was originally supposed to have been on the planes, but he could not get his papers for leave signed.[25] Not only was Lt. Col. Paone involved in readying the plane, but after the plane was shot down, his duties included cleaning up the wreckage in order to send the downed Buffalo’s parts home. He recalls the events as the worst days in his life. “I was so naive, that there was all this brown stuff all over the ground that these white wasps are going nuts over, and I never even realized it was their remains at all. I suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress because of it.”[26] These injections of mayhem into their relatively routine lives as peacekeepers was described by Dr. Brodsky as being rather like police work:
You spend a lot of time being very, very board, and all of that is interjected by moments of sheer terror. Moments of hyperactivity, where everything is happening, everything is coming apart, and you are working very hard trying to keep a lid on things. Other times nothing is happening at all.[27]
This description is documented in the War Diary photographs in the Appendix. While these periods of hyperactivity did exist, the spans of ‘peace’ in between the incidents allowed the soldiers a good measure of normalcy and routine in their lives.
In addition to the descriptions of the soldiers’ time spent in vacationing or at the beach, the interviewees also recalled how they spent their leisure time at the base. Dr. Brodsky recalls how there would be reels of 35mm films brought from Canada once a week to Cyprus. He states that:
The films would be sent from one company to the next company to the next company in order. So we would show a reel film and it would be quickly rewound and given to a driver and he would dash off with it to the next company so it would be ready for when the film before it ran out and so on. The entire film went around through the battalion area. I remember one of the favourite was one of the early James Bond films with Sean Connery as a very young, suave James Bond.[28]
The interviewees also recall playing chess, darts, reading, playing practical joke and also drinking to pass time.[29] Another occupation all three interviewees shared was communicating with home. At the times of these missions, the satellite phones, MSN chat, and emails which the troops in Afghanistan use today to communicate with their families, were unavailable or in some cases not invented yet.[30] The soldiers were, as Dr. Brodsky recalls, “completely out of touch with [their] families” in Canada, other than through ordinary mail.[31] Accordingly, writing and receiving letters occupied a large amount of their time. Dr. Brodsky also states, that along with letters, they would receive “little care packages, dehydrated foods, and that type of thing” from his wife and the other spouses. While all three veterans spent time writing letters back home, Lt. Col. Paone remembers another system of communication they had created while he served with the UNEF II. He recalls that they had an amateur radio set up at their base, where you could radio home and “could always get somebody in Canada to phone who you wanted to talk to.”[32]
While there were many periods of normalcy during these missions, the United Nations missions still were quite beneficial and important in terms of the day-to-day lives of the civilians. It is argued that the presence of the UN alone is a cause for restraint of conflict. It allowed for the families of Greek Cypriots to be reunited with each other by reopening roads which had been closed by the Turkish Cypriot army; as well as preventing atrocities to be carried out by Greeks against Turks as had previously occurred.[33] As well, in asking people who have lived through peacekeeping missions, they remember the peacekeepers for their contributions to “those tiny, cumulative efforts by which individuals and families can reclaim their lives.”[34] Although these missions were not always successful, as both the UNMOGIP and the UNFICYP missions are still active, the peacekeepers were nevertheless able to create a difference in the lives of others.
In addition to helping others, the soldiers were able to learn a great deal themselves by serving in these missions. Going into the mission, Lt. Col. Paone described himself as a naive nineteen year old.[35] However, by the end of this service with the UNEF II, he had learned a great deal. He had learned that although the Polish were technically their cold war enemy, “they bleed just as well as we did.”[36] He also learned just how small the world really was. He remembers one time while he was in the Golan Heights:
We were in the mess having a drink and two Israeli airborne soldiers came in, young fellows, not much different in age than myself, and sat down. One of the them said to me: “You don’t remember me. I was in the 15th Field Regiment, RCA out of Vancouver as a reservist.” He was Jewish, and had come to [Israel to] do his time in the military and had served in the last war.[37]
Through his service with the UNEF II Lt. Col. Paone was also able to learn valuable life lessons he would have not otherwise have. He states that he “saw things that would never, ever happen in Canada. It made me really appreciate Canada. It increased my tolerance quite a bit: not everything’s black and white.” Lt. Col. Paone ended his interviewing saying, it was the “best thing I ever did in my life...I wouldn’t trade it.” [38]
Although these interviewees served in different countries, at different times and in different capacities, one is able to see direct similarities in their lives as peacekeepers. While the nature of the United Nations is political, the stories presented by these veterans are focused on their individual lives rather than policies and statistics. The oral histories, then, represent a ‘cleaner image’ of the event, a product of experience rather than study.[39] Although one will never be able to understand the full and complete mission without participating themselves, through these interviews, the personal perspectives give the listener an insider’s view into the lives of the peacekeeping soldiers.
Appendix I
Document I and Document II are from a United Nations Forces in Cyprus mission War Diary, photographed on November 4th, 2008. They are from Dr. G. W. Stephen Brodsky’s files.
Document II
Bibliography
Bin, Matthew. On Guard for Thee: Canadian Peacekeeping Missions. Toronto, ON: Bookland Press, 2007.
Brodsky, Dr G W. Personal interview in Sidney, BC on November 3rd, 2008.
Derkson, Major RA. Personal interview in Victoria, BC on November 5th, 2008.
Fisch, Michael. “Oral History and Hard Times: A Review Essay” in Oral History Review vol. 7 (1979), pages 70-79.
Gaffen, Paul. In the Eye of the Storm: A History of Canadian Peacekeeping. Toronto, ON: Deneau & Wayne, 1987.
Graves, Donald E. “Naked Truths for the Asking: Twentieth Century Military Historians and the Battlefield Narrative” in Military History and the Military Profession Eds, David Charters, Marc Milner, and J. Brent Wilson. Westport: Praeger, 1992. Pages 45-55
Hillmer, Norman. “Canadian Peacekeeping: Old and New,” in Peacekeeping 1815 to Today: Proceedings of the XXIst International Commission of Military History. Quebec City, QB: Canadian Commission of Military History, 1995. Pages 539-548.
Paone, Lieutenant Colonel Paul. Personal interview in Victoria, BC on November 12th. 2008.
Tosh, John. “History by Word of Mouth,” in The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of Modern History. London: Longman, 1992. Pages 206-227.
Whitworth, Sandra. Men, Militarism & UN Peacekeeping: A Gendered Analysis. London, UK: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004.