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Afghanistan: a Glimpse of War—Contemporary History at the Canadian War Museum

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Afghanistan: a Glimpse of War—Contemporary History at the Canadian War Museum Canadian Military History Volume 16 Issue 3 Article 5 2007 Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War—Contemporary History at the Canadian War Museum Andrew Burtch Canadian War Museum, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Burtch, Andrew "Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War—Contemporary History at the Canadian War Museum." Canadian Military History 16, 3 (2007) This Canadian War Museum is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Burtch: Afghanistan Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War Contemporary History at the Canadian War Museum Andrew Burtch ow do you exhibit the history on historical themes and issues in its Hof an ongoing conflict, with an permanent galleries, to present new, unknown outcome and with most compelling stories from Canadian documents restricted on the basis of military history, and to develop or operational security? What story can import exhibitions dealing with global you tell? Afghanistan: A Glimpse of themes and special topics of interest War, a special exhibition developed by to a wide audience. and currently on view at the Canadian War Museum (CWM), addresses these It is important for the CWM, as questions by using first-hand accounts the national museum for Canadian from eyewitness records, media reports, military history, to tell Canadians interviews, open source material, and the about the most recent and significant visitors themselves. The exhibition presents the chapter of their military past. Five years on, origins of the war in Afghanistan, and Canadian the Afghanistan conflict is already longer than participation from the first deployments in 2002 Canadian involvement in the First World War to current operations in Kandahar province. and Korea. Over 10,000 Canadian soldiers, The personal stories in the exhibition examine sailors and fliers have served in Afghanistan or how individual Canadian soldiers and Afghans in support of the mission. At the time of writing, experienced conflict and reconstruction in 67 Canadians have been killed there, and over Afghanistan, and were made available to 200 wounded. Presenting an exhibition on the the CWM primarily through the work of two subject allowed the CWM to explore the human Canadian journalists, Stephen Thorne and Garth experience of an ongoing war, both Canadian Pritchard. and Afghan. There were, however, challenges to overcome in preparing this exhibition. Foremost The work performed at the CWM in research, among these was defining the scope and reach exhibitions, and collections is directed at of the exhibition to ensure that all the stories informing our visitors about their military history presented were based on verifiable historical in all its personal, national, and international research. dimensions. Our exhibitions provide context for specific conflicts based on historical research, A comprehensive history of Canada’s present insight into the personal stories of those involvement in Afghanistan does not yet exist who served in or experienced Canadian conflicts in the historiography. Although many historical through artifacts, photographs, film, and other details of Canada’s involvement will be uncovered media, and indicate some of the consequences as time passes, most of the official records and for Canada’s history. Visitors should walk away documentation pertaining to operations, foreign from our exhibits with an understanding of how policy, intelligence, and tactics, will remain conflict has shaped their history from 5,000 years strictly secret long after Canada’s contribution to ago to the present. The museum’s temporary the Afghanistan mission has ended. Even when exhibitions allow the CWM flexibility to expand Canadian records are unlocked, research will © Canadian Military History, Volume 16, Number 3, Summer 2007, pp.43-52. 43 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2007 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 16 [2007], Iss. 3, Art. 5 Credit: Stephen Thorne/CP Credit: Stephen Thorne/CP Above left: Canadian Press correspondent Stephen Thorne on the “Whale’s Back” ridgeline, March 2002. Above right: Documentary filmmaker Garth Pritchard at Bagram Air Base, March 2002. be restricted by the international composition the war. The exhibition would not be a detailed of the International Security Assistance Force interpretation of the conflict or a chronology of (ISAF), its information policies, and those of its Canadian involvement (few exhibitions are) but member countries. Writing a history of Canadians would instead highlight personal experiences under American command, for instance, will be of war, in this case principally those of Stephen difficult if American primary sources remain Thorne, Garth Pritchard, and the Canadian restricted.1 soldiers and Afghans they observed. Researching the conflict is further hindered The exhibition is organized in a rough by a void in the secondary literature. Few chronological order, with five sections representing scholarly works exist on current operations, different historical periods, extending from the and those that do either focus on the rise of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the present. Before Taliban in Afghanistan, international terrorism, visitors enter, they are informed about the scope or the fighting in Afghanistan in 2001-2002.2 of the exhibition in a prominent introductory text. The absence of both secondary and primary The exhibition begins with the terrorist attacks sources precluded the possibility of writing or on New York City on 11 September 2001, and the indeed exhibiting a comprehensive survey of Canadian response at the personal, national and the conflict. Given the limitations of the current international levels. The atmosphere of the period historical record, and that the CWM already, in immediately following the attacks is illustrated its permanent galleries, uses personal stories through reproductions of newspapers, and first- extensively to highlight the experience of conflict, person quotations from Canadian and American the exhibition team determined at an early date decision-makers found in media sources, but that the scope of the Afghanistan exhibition also from ordinary Canadians. One of these is should be limited to providing “glimpses” of Cheryl Boyle of Charlottetown, Prince Edward 44 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol16/iss3/5 2 Burtch: Afghanistan Island, who organized a group of volunteers Stephen Thorne has worked for The to bake apple pies for rescue workers in New Canadian Press for the past 23 years as a York City. The pie boxes were decorated by local reporter, photographer, and editor, and was school children, and three of these were chosen posted to Afghanistan three times between 2002 for display.3 The material in this section reveals and 2004. His feature stories about Canadians different aspects of the Canadian response to in combat and Afghans rebuilding their country terrorism, from the shock of the attacks, to the were published in national and local newspapers decision made by the Canadian government across Canada. Garth Pritchard is an award- to participate in an international military winning documentary filmmaker who has filmed intervention in Afghanistan. The 9/11 section sets Canadian soldiers in Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo, the tone for the rest of the exhibition by reminding Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. He travelled to visitors that the period is part of their history. It is Afghanistan five times between 2002 and 2005, their story too. Visitors are therefore encouraged from the first deployment of Canadian soldiers to share their personal history by posting their to the activities of the Provincial Reconstruction comments in response to questions mounted at Team in Kandahar. Stephen Thorne provided the feedback stations in the introductory section and CWM with thousands of photographs, several throughout the exhibition.4 artifacts he obtained on his trips, and his own written accounts, including all versions of his filed The next three sections of the exhibition reports and his field notebooks. Garth Pritchard explore successive Canadian deployments in enjoyed unique access to Canadian soldiers Afghanistan. The material used to tell the history and bases in Afghanistan, which is recorded changes with the tone. Visitors leave behind in hundreds of hours of footage. This captures familiar Canadian newspaper headlines, editorial candid, personal reflections of soldiers and cartoons, and political decision-making and join dynamic operations in the field. The journalists’ Canadian soldiers in the field. These sections eye-witness accounts formed an important feature the core content of the exhibition, the primary source for the study of a contemporary photography and film of veteran Canadian conflict, and their material constituted a vast journalists Stephen Thorne and Garth Pritchard, resource of potential content. and focus exclusively on their “glimpse” of war and those of the soldiers and Afghans they The CWM applied the same standards of observed. scholarship and historical oversight in the Reproductions of newspaper headlines, artifacts, and first-hand accounts highlight Canada’s response to the 9/11 attacks. 45 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2007 3 Canadian Military History, Vol. 16 [2007], Iss. 3, Art. 5 Credit: Stephen Thorne/CP Soldiers
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