About Chris Dagg
 

Chris Dagg had a distinguished career that brought him numerous awards and the widespread admiration of people in Vietnam, Indonesia, China and Canada. He was especially valued at Simon Fraser University where he held a range of key international cooperation posts for 30 years.

Chris was born in Vancouver on July 12, 1940, growing up in what was then a very provincial town. In 1962, he earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of British Columbia. Not one to play it safe and always drawn to other cultures, Chris joined the Foreign Service in 1966, in time for the worst of the Vietnam War.

He was part of Canada's team on the multinational body monitoring the mostly mythical cease-fire between North and South Vietnam. Chris was in Saigon in 1968 on the night of the Tet Offensive. Hearing gunfire, he climbed to the Continental Hotel rooftop to have a peek, quickly retreating when he realized US troopers in the street below might take aim at his thin silhouette, mistaking him for a Vietcong.

Somewhere in a dusty Ottawa archive moulders his unpublished manuscript on Canada's efforts in the region. His contribution was recognized in 2002 when he was awarded the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal for his role during the Vietnam War. Back in Ottawa in 1970, Chris met young Australian teacher, Lindsay Maclean. They married in 1973 and soon found themselves in Indonesia, eventually raising two children there.