[1] The deserters were aided in their efforts by groups such as Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, the Revolutionary Union, The Resistance, American Friends Service Committee, War Resisters League and the Committee for Peace and Freedom.
[2] 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 received the bulk of its funds from the Montreal Council to Aid War Resisters (MCAWR), which, in turn, received most of its funds from the Canadian Council of Churches.
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 agenda, and discouraging dissent.