Book description
In the Service of Peace simple words that adorn the obverse of every
United Nations medal, yet behind this eloquence lurks violence and an
unheralded heroism invisible to an often misunderstood quarter of
Canadas military history. The Canadian contribution to peacekeeping is
enormous but ensnared in a lethal mythology that has seen it abandoned
to popular folklore. From the early and intrinsic Canadian
contribution to the U. N. Emergency Force in 1956, through the blur of
the frenetic 1990s down to the anemic level of contemporary Canadian
participation, it is difficult to make sense of the wide circumference
of this significant legacy. Until now.
Scarce Heard Amid the Guns provides an incisive perspective
on the various Canadian missions: their omnipresent doubt and
un-telegraphed terrors. This insiders guided tour of our military at
war in peace introduces us to some of the men and women who carried
the day ordinary Canadians who did extraordinary things and continue
to bear the scars of forgotten fields in their bones.
"Conrad rightly points out that while we have made much of
places like Vimy and Ypres and Juno Beach we are only now beginning to
understand what Canadian soldiers did in places like Kapyong Reservoir
in the Korean War and in Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia."
Lieutenant-Colonel John Conrad is a reserve army officer with 28 years
of experience in the Canadian Forces. He is a veteran of both the United
Nations and NATO brands of peacekeeping and has served in Cambodia,
Bosnia, and Afghanistan. His previous book about his experiences in
Afghanistan,
What the Thunder Said
, was a bestseller. He lives in Orono, Ontario.
