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Canada and the Cold War

Article by Alex Herd

Updated by John Boileau

Published Online February 6, 2006

Last Edited January 21, 2022

The Cold War refers to the period between the end of the  Second World War  and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. During this time, the world was largely divided into two ideological camps — the United States-led capitalist “West” and the Soviet-dominated communist “East.” Canada aligned with the West. Its government structure, politics, society and popular perspectives matched those in the US, Britain, and other democratic countries. The global US-Soviet struggle took many different forms and touched many areas. It never became “hot” through direct military confrontation between the two main antagonists.

The Cold War was rooted in the collapse of the American-British-Soviet alliance that defeated Germany and Japan in the Second World War . The Allies were already divided ideologically. They were deeply suspicious of the other side’s world plans. American and British diplomatic relations with Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union severely cooled after the war, over several issues. In particular, the Soviets placed and kept local communist parties in power as puppet governments in once-independent countries across Eastern Europe. This was done without due democratic process. This situation led former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill to state on 5 March 1946 that an “iron curtain” had fallen across the European continent.

Gouzenko Affair

In February 1946, the Canadian government revealed that it had given political asylum to Igor Gouzenko . He was a Soviet cipher clerk stationed at the Soviet Union’s embassy in Ottawa . Just weeks after the end of the Second World War , Gouzenko left the embassy with documents that proved his country had been spying on its wartime allies: Canada, Britain and the United States. According to the documents, the Soviet embassy was home to several spies. They were connected to agents in Montreal , the United States and the United Kingdom who had been providing Moscow with classified information.

Did You Know? English writer George Orwell first used the term Cold War in a 19 October 1945 essay entitled “You and the Atomic Bomb” in a British magazine. In it, he described what he predicted would be a nuclear stalemate between two or three superpowers, each of which possessed weapons that could wipe out millions of people in a few seconds.

On 16 April 1947, American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch used the phrase Cold War to describe the relationship between the US and Soviet Union in a speech written for him by British journalist Herbert Bayard Swope. “Let us not be deceived,” he said, “we are today in the midst of a Cold War. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home. Let us never forget this: Our unrest is the heart of their success.”

These revelations caused a potentially dangerous international crisis. Canadians targeted by Soviet espionage worked in sensitive positions. They were privy to diplomatic, scientific and military secrets. This included highly classified information concerning research on radar , code-breaking and the atomic bomb. Several historians and critics consider the Gouzenko affair, as it was known, to mark the beginning of the Cold War era. They also believe it set the stage for the “Red Scare” of the 1950s.

The Gouzenko affair led to widespread investigations in Canada, the US and Great Britain. In Canada, 39 suspects were arrested and 18 were convicted. Some of the most high-profile Canadians who were convicted included: Fred Rose , who was a member of Parliament ; Sam Carr of the Labor-Progressive Party ( see Communist Party of Canada ); and Canadian Army Captain Gordon Lunan.

Cold War Deep Freeze

The period 1947 to 1953 became the Cold War’s “deep freeze.” East-West negotiations on the future of Europe broke down and stopped. The international climate worsened with several high-profile events. Canadians were involved in some of them, including the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a western security pact designed to defend Western Europe against Soviet invasion; and the Korean War (1950–53) in which Canadian forces fought with the United Nations against communist North Korean and Chinese forces supported by the Soviets.

In the late 1940s, Ottawa and other Western capitals watched with concern as the Soviet Union created a buffer zone in Eastern Europe — the “iron curtain” — between itself and the West. The Soviet Union imposed its will on East Germany, Poland and other central and southeastern European nations. The USSR pursued a policy of aggressive military expansion at home and subversion abroad. There was real fear that France, Italy or other nations might become communist and eventually ally themselves with the Soviets.

In response, Western allies formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. At the core of the treaty was a security provision. It stated that “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” NATO was Canada’s first peacetime military alliance. Signed on 4 April 1949, it included 11 other nations: the United States, Iceland, Britain, France, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal and Italy. Other European countries joined later in the Cold War: Greece and Turkey in 1952, West Germany in 1955 and Spain in 1982.

As a result of the formation of NATO, the Soviet Union established the Warsaw Pact on 14 May 1955, immediately following West Germany joining the western alliance. The Warsaw Pact was a collective defence treaty consisting of the Soviet Union and seven of its satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe: Albania (withdrew in 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

Non-Aligned Movement

The year 1955 also saw the beginnings of what became known as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). At the Bandung Conference of Asian and African countries that year, attendees called for “abstention from the use of arrangements of collective defence to serve the particular interests of the big powers.” In particular, they believed that in the context of the Cold War, developing countries should abstain from allying with either of the two superpowers and instead band together in support of national self-determination.

The NAM was founded in 1961, under the initial leadership of India, Indonesia, Ghana, Egypt and Yugoslavia. As a condition of membership, NAM states could not be part of a multinational military alliance (such as NATO or the Warsaw Pact) or have a bilateral military agreement with one of the big powers if “deliberately concluded in the context of Great Power conflicts.”

NATO existed largely as a paper alliance until the Korean War . It was the first major conflict of the Cold War. It led the NATO states — many of them fighting in Korea under the banner of the United Nations — to build up their military forces. For Canada, this resulted in a huge increase in the defence budget and, eventually, the return of troops to Europe. By the mid-1950s, about 10,000 Canadian troops were stationed in France and West Germany.

More than 26,000 Canadians served in Korea, during both the combat phase and as peacekeepers afterward. The last Canadian soldiers left Korea in 1957. After the two world wars, Korea remains Canada’s third-bloodiest overseas conflict. It took the lives of 516 Canadians and wounded more than 1,000.

Arctic Sovereignty

Amid fears of Soviet aggression, the United States heightened its military capabilities in the Arctic. This posed a potential threat to Canadian claims to the North . ( See Canadian Arctic Sovereignty ). The Department of Resources and Development, which oversaw Inuit affairs at the time, decided to populate Ellesmere and Cornwallis islands with Inuit, even though the areas were devoid of human population. In 1953 and 1955, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) moved approximately 92 Inuit from Northern Quebec and what is now Nunavut to settle two locations on these High Arctic islands. Trade and economics also played a role in the relocations. ( See Inuit High Arctic Relocations .)

Did You Know? Cold War tensions brought unprecedented attention to the Canadian North. The current version of the Canadian Rangers was established in 1947 to work in remote, isolated and coastal regions of Canada. Their mission is to support Canadian Armed Forces national security and public safety operations. In the decades that followed, the Rangers developed as a sub-component of the Canadian Army Reserve .”

Domestic Concerns

As the Gouzenko affair showed, the Cold War was felt as much at home as abroad. There were communist “witch hunts” in Canadian government and society. These were perhaps more subdued than the ones in the US, but they had real consequences. Communists were identified and purged from trade unions. LGBTQ individuals, who were considered susceptible to blackmail and coercion, were purged from the federal public service and the armed forces . ( See Canada’s Cold War Purge of LGBTQ from Public Service and Canada’s Cold War Purge of LGBTQ from the Military .)

Canadian diplomats with allegedly questionable loyalties were put under suspicion. Tragically, Canadian ambassador to Egypt E. Herbert Norman committed suicide in Cairo in 1957. This came after almost a decade of various accusations and investigations by American intelligence agencies into his communist associations during the 1930s. Although he did have those associations, the Canadian government affirmed its confidence in him.

Serious East-West diplomatic discussions resumed after the death of Stalin in 1953. But international tensions remained high for the next several decades. On a global scale, Canada contributed armed forces to peacekeeping operations throughout the world; this included areas divided between communist and anti-communist factions. Canadian political and military leaders were at times critical of American actions against communism in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia; but they still prepared for possible war against the Soviets in Europe.

Did You Know? By the 1950s, there was a growing concern that Soviet bombers would attack North America from the Canadian Arctic. In fact, NATO intelligence suggested that such an attack could occur as early as 1954. In response, in 1953–54, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) commissioned Avro to design and build the Arrow. It was an all-weather nuclear fighter jet meant to fly higher and faster than any aircraft in its class. ( See Avro Arrow .)

Canadian Forces in Europe

The Canadian NATO commitment in Europe included an army brigade group in West Germany and air force fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons in France and West Germany. This marked the first time during peace that Canada had stationed armed forces abroad. Canada’s contributions included 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, which was stationed in Germany during the Cold War. It also committed infantry battalion groups to Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (Land). The units were stationed in Canada but could be deployed quickly to Europe if necessary. Canada also contributed air power to NATO. It formed 1 Air Division (1 AD) in 1951 as the country’s air contribution to NATO in Europe. This eventually became 1 Canadian Air Group.

Under the government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada reduced the size of its land and air forces stationed in Europe. In response to allied criticism, the Canadian government created the Canadian Air-Sea Transportable (CAST) Brigade Group in 1968. This new formation was stationed in Canada but could deploy to Norway in times of tension on 30 days notice from the Norwegian government.

Did You Know? Before 1970, when the regulations changed, Canadian service personnel and their dependants who died while stationed in Germany and France were buried there, in local civilian cemeteries. Almost 1,400 Canadians are buried in the two countries, with 474 in Werl alone.

For Canada’s government and its people, the fear of nuclear war remained ever-present throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Canadians were active at various levels in trying to avoid such a calamity.

For much of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union held each other to a nuclear standoff known by its acronym, MAD, for mutual assured destruction. The theory behind MAD — thankfully never put to a practical test — was that even after an initial surprise nuclear attack by one side, the other side would still retain enough of a second-strike capability to retaliate in kind. It was thought such a capability would act as a deterrent to both sides. If ever employed, the net result of mutual assured destruction would likely have been the end of civilization.

In the early 1950s, defence agreements between Canada and the US centred on the construction of early warning radar networks across Canada to detect Soviet manned bombers carrying nuclear weapons. This eventually resulted in three lines of radar stations: the Pine Tree Line, the Mid-Canada Line and the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line. Such cooperation led to talks about the possible integration of air defence arrangements.

On 1 August 1957, the Canadian and American governments announced they would integrate their air-defence forces under a joint command called the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). At this stage in the Cold War, both Canada and the US feared long-range Soviet attack. The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF) would work together to ensure protection.

Did You Know? The “Diefenbunker” is an underground bunker designed to withstand the force of a nuclear blast. It was built between 1959 and 1961 in Carp, Ontario , during a peak in Cold War tensions. It was named after then- Prime Minister John Diefenbaker . It is now the location of Canada’s Cold War Museum. ( See Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum .) Similar bunkers were built at the provincial level.

Bomarc Missile Crisis

In late 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker ’s Conservative government announced an agreement with the US to deploy American “Bomarc” antiaircraft missiles in Canada. This controversial defence decision was one of many flowing from the 1957 NORAD agreement.

Some argued that the missiles would be an effective replacement for the Avro Arrow , which the Diefenbaker government scrapped in early 1959. The missiles would theoretically intercept any Soviet attacks on North America before they reached Canada’s industrial heartland. ( See Civil Defence .)

However, the government did not make it clear that the missiles would be fitted with nuclear warheads. When this came to light in 1960, a dispute erupted as to whether Canada should adopt nuclear weapons. In the end, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson decided to accept the nuclear warheads in 1963. ( See Bomarc Missile Crisis .)

• Cuban Missile Crisis

On 15 October 1962, an American spy plane discovered that Soviet missiles were being installed in Cuba. This was seen as a direct threat to the United States and Canada. Canadian forces were placed on heightened alert during the crisis that followed. But Prime Minister John Diefenbaker ’s hesitant response aggravated US President John F. Kennedy; it fuelled already difficult relations between Canada and the US in the 1960s. The crisis brought the world to the edge of nuclear war. It ended on 28 October 1962, when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to dismantle and remove the Soviet missiles in return for Kennedy’s promise not to invade Cuba. ( See Cuban Missile Crisis .)

The Cold War at Sea

During the Second World War , the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) became a recognized expert in antisubmarine warfare (ASW). This continued as its main role in the Cold War. In conjunction with NATO navies, the RCN patrolled and monitored the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for Soviet submarines. Canada designed and built 20 world-class destroyer escorts specifically for ASW, cooperated with the US in monitoring a system of underwater sensors to detect submarine activity, pioneered the use of shipborne ASW helicopters and replaced its fleet of ASW fixed-wing aircraft ( see Tracker and Argus ).

In January 1968, NATO established the Standing Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT, abbreviated to SNFL and pronounced “sniffle” by sailors) as a permanent maritime quick reaction force. SNFL was designed to respond rapidly to a crisis and establish a NATO presence and resolve. The force consists of six to 10 destroyers, frigates and tankers attached for up to six months. Canada is one of five permanent contributors. During the Cold War, SNFL was normally positioned off the northwest coast of Europe and tasked to defend the North Atlantic. RCN commodores and rear admirals commanded SNFL on a rotational basis. ( See also Canada and Antisubmarine Warfare during the Cold War .)

Fall of the Soviet Union

The Cold War began winding down in the late 1980s amid new efforts at openness by the Soviet leadership and a surge of freedom movements inside the European communist states. Between the summers of 1989 and 1990, democratically elected governments replaced all the former communist regimes in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Among the most visible signals of the collapse of communism were the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 (which had separated West and East Germany since 1961) and the fall of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

Book a Speaker

• Igor Gouzenko
• United Nations
• Lester B Pearson
• Soviet Union
• Iron Curtain
• peacekeeping
• John Diefenbaker

Further Reading

• Lawrence Miller, The Avro Arrow: The Story of the Great Canadian Cold War Combat Jet (2014).
• Reg Whitaker and Steve Hewitt, Canada and the Cold War (2003).
• Gary Marcuse and Reginald Whitaker, Cold War Canada: The Making of a National Insecurity State, 1945–1957 (1995).
• Amy Knight, How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies (2005).
• Robert Bothwell,  Alliance and Illusion: Canada and the World, 1945–1984  (2011).

Recommended

Canada and the cuban missile crisis, canada’s cold war purge of lgbtq from public service.

Civil Defence

Middle power, vietnam war, canadian security intelligence service.

Canada Role in the Cold War Essay

In the article from the Globe and Mail , the main argument is that Canada, as an ally of the United States and the United Nations (UN) was inclined to support military activity in Korea during the Cold War. However, as noted in the source, Canada had no adequate armed forces to send, including ground and air forces. After reviewing the assistance provided by such countries as Britain, Australia, and others allying with the UN, Canada expressed the desire to help them as well. To summarize the reason for its inability to participate in military activity, the Canadian government declared that a lack of proper planning, or even a complete absence of planning, resulted in failure to equip and train soldiers and sailors.

At the same time, the article does point out that Canada had previously sent some naval destroyers to Korea. This action displayed the true intentions of the country’s government and showed that the lack of armed forces was not merely an excuse. However, it is also possible to interpret Canada’s actions as, to some extent supporting its role as a so-called middle power, in which it tried to act as a peaceful country and end the war in Korea with minimal intervention and the fewest possible causalities. This interpretation seems to fit the available evidence, as Canada had previously expressed its peacekeeping ideals.

The second reading presents the views of James G. Endicott, a Canadian clergyman, socialist, and missionary activist. His argument is that the path of peace, through the use of negotiation and debate rather than war, is the most appropriate and effective way to resolve conflicts. Endicott emphasized that war between the Soviet Union and the Western powers is likely to be inevitable due to ideological tension between them. As for the war in Korea, the clergyman noted that no Canadians were afraid that the distant country would attack them or cause them any direct harm.

However, if the government followed the US and the UN, it might send soldiers to Korea or China to suppress the local population, who were struggling to change the existing order in a legitimate manner. The author also emphasized the act recently approved by the UN about a peaceful resolution of conflicts, thus showing that the organization was not complying with its stated mission and ideals. More to the point, Endicott asserted that the Government pushed people to blindly follow its intentions. It is evident, he states, that some powerful groups were pursuing engagement in war and encouraging others to do so for the sake of their own profit.

Comparing the two readings, it is safe to assume that the one by Endicott seems to be more convincing and to make more sense. The author clearly highlights the mission of the UN and then shows that the organization failed to comply with it. Another strong point of his argument is that he focuses on Canadians and the country’s affairs rather than mere assistance to allies. Endicott clearly understands that neither Korea nor China presented a threat to Canada and therefore argues that there is no need to participate in or promote war, while it is possible to apply peaceful measures. Indeed, it seems that Endicott was confident that the appropriate conclusion is to call people to ponder the government’s actions. The fact that the author provides some financial information regarding armament costs shows that he is quite familiar with business issues and understands them well. In general, the arguments by Endicott are more informative, reasonable, and clear than those expressed in the Globe and Mail .

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, October 4). Canada Role in the Cold War. https://ivypanda.com/essays/canada-role-in-the-cold-war/

"Canada Role in the Cold War." IvyPanda , 4 Oct. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/canada-role-in-the-cold-war/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Canada Role in the Cold War'. 4 October.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Canada Role in the Cold War." October 4, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/canada-role-in-the-cold-war/.

1. IvyPanda . "Canada Role in the Cold War." October 4, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/canada-role-in-the-cold-war/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Canada Role in the Cold War." October 4, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/canada-role-in-the-cold-war/.

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Chapter 9. Cold War Canada, 1945-1991

9.4 The Cold War

The Cold War refers to the period of heightened tensions between the West (that is, the United States, Canada, Britain, France, and their allies) and the Soviet Union, lasting roughly from 1945 to 1991. Its origins can be traced to several sources but it rapidly became a war of postures and proxy wars between the two heavy-hitters, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Cold War was so named as it never featured direct military action between the two superpowers or their main allies. With the old “great powers” of Europe exhausted and battered by World War II, the United States (largely unscathed, the main creditor state in the world, and heavily industrialized) and the Soviet Union (badly beaten up but in a position to rebuild its defenses) emerged as the dominant powers. The addition of atomic bombs to their respective arsenals entitled them to a new title: superpowers. [1]

The Allies Fall Out

Having combined to defeat the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan), the Allies (principally, the USSR, the United States, and the United Kingdom) found themselves disagreeing on the shape of the postwar world. At the February 1945 Yalta Conference, the Allies could not reach a consensus on crucial questions like the occupation of Germany and whether Germany should be forced to pay reparations again. Given Russia’s historical experience of invasions from the West and the immense death toll it recorded during the war (estimated at 27 million), the Soviet Union sought to increase security by dominating the internal affairs of countries on which it bordered, and especially Germany. On the other hand, the United States sought military victory over Japan, the achievement of global American economic supremacy, and the creation of an intergovernmental body to promote international cooperation.

At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Allies met to decide how to administer the defeated Nazi Germany. Serious differences emerged over the future development of Central and Eastern Europe. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945) were, in part, a calculated effort on the part of the American government to intimidate the Soviet Union, limiting Soviet influence in postwar Asia. The bombings served to fuel Soviet distrust of the United States and are regarded by some historians not only as the closing act of World War II, but as the opening salvo of the Cold War.

Canada lacked the profile of the Americans in these events but was up to its elbows in complicity. The Quebec Agreement was signed by United States President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) on 19 August 1943 in the old capital of New France. The agreement ensured British and American collaboration on what became known as the Manhattan Project; Canadian involvement was simply assumed. In 1944, Canadian scientists and technicians joined the multinational team in the United States, along with tons of uranium-bearing ore from the Northwest Territories. A Combined Policy Committee was established on which Canada was represented; it had oversight and coordination responsibilities regarding the atomic bombs. Canada was not, however, permitted to participate in the decision-making process as to when and where to deploy the new weapons.

Canada’s role in the Manhattan Project and the corollary — that there were Canadians who possessed sophisticated knowledge about how to manufacture the world’s first weapon of mass destruction — made Canada a target worth spying on. In Ottawa on 5 September 1945, a Ukrainian cypher clerk slipped out of the Soviet Embassy where he worked, carrying more than 100 top-secret documents detailing Russian espionage activities in Canada. Igor Gouzenko (1919-1982) disclosed the existence of a spy ring that included sleeper agents working under deep cover in Canada. The whole of the operation was geared towards uncovering nuclear secrets so that the Soviet Union could match the American arsenal at the earliest opportunity.

By February 1946, the public was aware of the Gouzenko Affair , which played out in the press and in Parliament. Fred Rose (1907-1983), the lone Communist Party MP in Ottawa, was implicated in the Gouzenko documents and was subsequently jailed for nearly five years. The late 1940s, then, saw the beginnings in Canada of a panic about spies that would push Canada further and faster away from her former Soviet ally and deeper into the orbit of Cold War America.

On 5 March 1946, Churchill gave a speech declaring that an Iron Curtain  had descended across Europe. This metaphorical curtain divided East from West, leaving those nations behind it, as Churchill said, “subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.” To the Soviets, the speech seemed to intended to incite the West to war with the USSR, as it called for a broad western alliance against the Soviets.

In response to perceived Western aggression, in September 1947, the Soviets created Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) to enforce orthodoxy within the international communist movement and tighten political control over Soviet satellites through coordination of communist parties in the Eastern Bloc . [2]

Tensions between East and West continued to rise. In the spring of 1948, the focus shifted to Berlin. Germany and Berlin — along with Austria and its capital city, Vienna — had been divided into British, French, Soviet, and American sectors. The western Allies were on the verge of unifying their respective sectors of Germany as a whole — a development that the Russians were understandably unwilling to tolerate. In response, the Soviet Army initiated a blockade of Berlin, ensuring that food and fuel could not reach the American, French, and British zones in the capital. Unable to deliver goods by land or water through Russian-controlled Germany, the Western nations gambled on an airlift into the city.

Just as these events were unfolding, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Britain, and Luxembourg entered into a new mutual defense treaty. The Berlin blockade and the vastly superior Soviet land forces in central Europe obliged the Treaty of Brussels group to look to a wider association that would include the United States, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Canada. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the outcome: a mutual protection agreement under which an attack on one was to be regarded as an attack on all. For its first few years, NATO was not much more than a political association; the first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay (1887-1965), stated in 1949 that the organization’s goal was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”  However, events quickly galvanized the member states, and an integrated military structure was built up in which Canada played a prominent role. [3]

By the late 1940s, the tone of global diplomacy and relations had changed dramatically from what it had been in 1939. When Britain declared war on Germany, the Canadian delay in responding was, in part, symbolic of the nation’s new relative autonomy; now, if Russia made a move on Luxembourg or Iceland, Canada would automatically be at war, regardless of what Britain might decide to do. Thee agreements reflected fears of a conventional attack involving aircraft, navies, and heavy armoured tank divisions. Then, in 1949, things became significantly more complicated and ominous.

On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. The United States’ monopoly on nuclear weaponry was over. A few months later, on 1 October 1949, Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung, 毛泽东, 1893-1976) announced the triumph of the Chinese Communists over their Nationalist foes in a civil war that had been raging since 1927. The Nationalist forces, under their leader Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正, 1887-1975), departed for Taiwan in December 1949. A few months later, an unresolved situation on the Korean peninsula would lead to the first hot moment in the Cold War. The Soviet Union had been granted control of the northern half of the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II, and the United States occupied the southern portion. The Soviets displayed little interest in extending their power into South Korea, and Stalin did not wish to risk confrontation with the United States over Korea. North Korea’s leaders, however, wished to reunify the peninsula under Communist rule. In April 1950, Stalin finally gave permission to North Korea’s leader Kim Il-sung (김일성, 1912-94) to invade South Korea, and provided the North Koreans with weapons and military advisors.

The Korean War

On 25 June 1950, troops of the North Korean People’s Democratic Army (PDA) crossed the 38th parallel, the border between North and South Korea. Within only a month, the PDA captured all but the southernmost region of the peninsula. The first major test of the West’s policy of containment in Asia had begun, for the domino theory held that a victory by North Korea might lead to further Communist expansion in Asia, in the virtual backyard of the West’s former enemy and newest ally in East Asia — Japan.

The United Nations (UN) , which had been established in 1945, was quick to react. On 27 June 1950, the UN Security Council denounced North Korea’s actions and called upon UN members to help South Korea defeat the invading forces. As a permanent member of the Security Council, the Soviet Union could have vetoed the action, but it had boycotted UN meetings following the awarding of China’s seat on the Security Council to Taiwan instead of Mao’s People’s Republic of China (PRC). Spurred by the UN’s response, Canada’s Secretary of State for External Affairs, Lester B. Pearson (1897-1972), proposed that Canada send troops under the UN flag, led by American military.

The Canadian troop commitment in the Korean War  eventually reached nearly 27,000, and Canadians were active on sea, on the ground, and in the air — some of them flying combat jets, introduced in World War II but used only sparingly before Korea. Canadians performed many tasks but saw the most difficult fighting in three ground battles: Kapyong, Hill 355 (aka: Kowang-San), and Hill 187. Despite rapidly retaking not only the Republic of Korea but almost the whole of North Korea as well, the UN forces were confronted on the PRC’s border by hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops in the People’s Volunteer Army, who pushed the front back to the original dividing line, the 38th parallel, and forcing the American Eighth Army into a humiliating retreat. The status quo ante bellum was restored in 1953 — but not peace. Canadians stayed on duty in the PRC until 1957, monitoring — among other things — the Demilitarized Zone (aka: the DMZ). Both Koreas remain, technically, at war today. Five hundred and sixteen Canadians died in this conflict which, held against World War I or II, may not seem a great number. Nevertheless, this remains the third-largest loss of warriors experienced by Canada since Confederation.

Korea was a testing ground, too, for Canada’s approach to the Cold War. While the American administration under President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) and Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893-1971) was gambling on an Asian conflict that would cause the PRC to collapse in turmoil, the Canadians were much more committed to the objectives of the United Nations. Pearson was repeatedly at odds with Acheson, and the two foreign affairs offices developed a deep-seated mutual distrust and dislike. To take one example, Acheson claimed that a large number of Chinese and Korean prisoners of war (POWs) requested that they be allowed to remain in South Korea at the end of hostilities. The numbers were dubious, the whole idea was in conflict with the Geneva Convention , and Acheson’s transparent propaganda ploy blew up in his face when prisoners in the Koje-do Island POW camp demanded that they be returned to the North and to the PRC. Canadian troops were deployed to put down the ensuing riot, but without official Canadian consent. The effect was to entangle Canada in an affair that ran counter to its own foreign policy. As one study demonstrates, “Korea revealed the contradictions between the liberal-internationalist desire for the peaceful resolution of differences and the limitlessly aggressive logic of the anti-Communist Cold War crusade undertaken in Washington.” [4]

A Frosty Cold War

The Soviet Union’s involvement in Korea involved its new and impressive fleet of MiG-15 jet fighters, the PRC demonstrated its ability to put a massive and effective army into the field, and the UN showed that it could call on various member nations to contribute to the cause. It was also clear that the Americans had an agenda that was rather different from that of the UN, although the stopped well short of deploying atomic weapons to bring about a decisive victory. The Korean War, as well, served to establish a kind of Cold War protocol. Client states could host proxy wars that would stand in for the toe-to-toe conflict between the two superpowers.

Joseph Stalin’s (1878-1953) death did nothing to blunt fear of a Russian attack on Western Europe. By the mid-1950s, the West had come to terms with the need to re-arm West Germany (aka: the Federal Republic of Germany) because no other state had the population or industrial capacity to act as a physical barrier to Soviet aggression. A unified and re-armed West Germany was, of course, anathema to the Russians, who responded by bringing together their Eastern European tribute states (Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Bulgaria) into a mirror image of NATO: the Warsaw Pact. As in 1939, the northern hemisphere was dividing between liberal democracies and regimes characterized by the use of authoritarian power.

At home the Canadian response to the Cold War would take several forms. There were anti-communist purges in trade unions, the civil service, and elsewhere in Canada even before the McCarthyite witch hunts in the United States. Trade unions with a strong communist tradition, including waterfront workers’ organizations, were smashed under the leadership of Hal Banks (1909-1985), an American brought in to replace the left-leaning unions with the Seafarers’ International Union. As in Britain and other NATO countries, homosexuals were targeted (for reasons discussed in Section 12.7 ).

American fears of homegrown communist movements springing up in the Americas and in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia prompted interventions in various countries. In some instances, American involvement resulted in defeat of legitimate left-wing movements; in others, liberal democratic regimes were propped up. In Cuba, an unpopular regime faced local rebels who were supported by an American embargo. The government fell and was replaced by a regime headed by Fidel Castro (b. 1926), which proceeded to turn sharply left and align with the USSR rather than the United States. The Cold War was now in the Americas.

Polar and Polaris

Technologies associated with warfare rapidly evolved after World War II. Canadian interest in jet-propulsion was led by A.V. Roe Canada (aka: AVRO), a British branch-plant in Malton, Ontario. Missile developments were also accelerating. Much of the advance made after 1945 was due to the availability of former German engineers who found themselves at the end of the war in either the Soviet or American spheres. In both the East and the West, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were being developed with a greater range and payload than conventional bomber aircraft. These delivery systems brought Soviet and American targets within striking distance, providing they crossed the Arctic and Canadian airspace. The 1971 post-apocalyptic novel by Ian Adams, The Trudeau Papers , described Canadians’ worst fears in these years, not of being targeted by the Russians but just being caught in between the two superpowers in a missile-slinging match. The spread of nuclear know-how and armaments to France (the so-called Force de frappe ) and Britain (with its arsenal of submarine-launched Polaris missiles) did little to calm a growing sense that the world, including Canada, had no place to hide in the event of a nuclear war. The first material expression of these fears was the construction of the Pinetree Line beginning in 1946 and improved through the 1950s. This radar system, running from west to east from 50 to 54 degrees latitude, was introduced to detect an incoming Soviet bomber attack. In the 1950s, the Mid-Canada Line (or McGill Fence) was added further north in the face of advances in jet engines, which meant a faster target to intercept. The successor Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line followed in the late 1950s and through the 1970s as a response to the possibility of ICBM attacks. Strung across the Arctic Ocean from Alaska to Baffin Island, the Dew Line still stands as Canada’s single largest investment in infrastructure in the high Arctic.

In 1963, British newspapers announced a scandalous liaison between Christine Keeler (a model and showgirl, b. 1942) and the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo (1915-2006). Keeler was also having a relationship with a Soviet military intelligence officer, Yevgeny Ivanov (1926-1994). The Profumo Affair, as it became known, set the tone for a similar scandal in Canada. In both, a femme fatale figured prominently as a sexual predator who could compromise national security. The Canadian press latched onto details as they came out of Ottawa, eager to sell a salacious affair to their readers.

Gerda Munsinger (1929-1998) was the main figure in this web of intrigue. She made several failed attempts to emigrate from postwar Germany under her birth-name (Hesler, Hessler, or Heseler, although she used several aliases). In 1955, she managed to elude immigration checks and arrived in Montreal, where she worked for a year as a maid and then as a sex worker and a hostess at Chez Paree, a Montreal nightclub. High-ranking government officials regularly frequented establishments like Chez Paree, and in no time Munsinger was having sexual relations with several of them. What’s more, she established regular liaisons with two of John Diefenbaker’s (1895-1979)  cabinet ministers: Minister of Transport George Hees (1910-1996) and Associate Defence Minister Pierre Sévigny (1917-2004). Both the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the RCMP believed that Munsinger might pose a threat. Wiretaps on her apartment confirmed that she was having an affair with one or more cabinet ministers. Sévigny’s identity was allegedly confirmed by a thumping sound on the RCMP tapes that turned out to be his prosthetic leg coming off and hitting the floor. There was, however, no evidence of a security breach. Diefenbaker was advised of the situation in 1960; he instructed Sévigny to break off the relationship, Sévigny did so, and the matter was left there until 1966.

Spy cases continued to surface. The new Liberal government’s handling of one on the West Coast drew fire from the Progressive Conservative Official Opposition. Diefenbaker criticized the Minister of Justice, Lucien Cardin (1919-1988), of being lax in his pursuit of traitors; Cardin responded by invoking Diefenbaker’s involvement in the – to this point, secret – Munsinger case. Despite repeated attempts on Prime Minister Pearson’s part to contain the issue, Cardin disclosed what he knew to the press and was the first to draw the comparison with the Profumo Affair. There were, however, no new revelations of espionage, just marital infidelity on the part of Sévigny.

By this time, Munsinger had returned to Germany, where she remarried. The investigative journalism program, This Hour Has Seven Days [5] , pursued the story and was abruptly cancelled thereafter by the CBC. The Munsinger Affair – which billed the central figure as a Cold War “Mata Hari” – perpetuated the notion of good men brought down by shady women working for enemy states. It was also something of a last gasp of the pre-sexual liberation era and says much about domestic, monogamous heterosexuality as not only a moral ideal but a matter of political and even national security as well.

Surviving the Cold War

Following the Suez Crisis in 1956 (see Sections 9.5 and 9.7 ), Canada engaged in a series of peacekeeping missions. These grew out of then-Foreign Affairs Secretary of State Lester Pearson’s idea of a UN observer force to calm relations between Egypt, Israel, France, and England. In the decade that followed, Canadian troops would be sent to Lebanon, Congo, West New Guinea, Yemen, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, and along the India-Pakistan border — sometimes as observers, sometimes as trainers, sometimes as a barrier between opponents still snarling at one another despite a ceasefire, sometimes all these things at once. Eleven more missions would follow in the years before the end of the Cold War. While some of these missions involved client states of the West and East or their respective partisans, mostly they could be defined as events associated with decolonization. This was the case in the Congo (as Belgium made an undignified exit), West New Guinea (where conflict arose between colonialist Netherlands and newly independent Indonesia), and also in the long-running dispute between India and Pakistan in the generation following their independence from Britain. The Cypriot Mission — which began in 1964 and shows few signs of abating — also came on the heels of independence from Britain, followed by Greek and Turkish attempts to lay claim to what had been a Crown Colony. What is striking in these years is the extent to which these Cold-War–era conflicts were more fundamentally about 19th century imperialism than postwar superpower spheres of influence. This was not the case in Cuba.

The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 deepened Canadian fears of a nuclear war between Russia and the United States. The long-range missiles that the Soviet Union proposed to deploy on Cuba would certainly reach major Canadian population centres if they were ever launched. The Americans were insistent that the Soviets abort the project and, for the better part of two weeks, Washington and Moscow (which was, itself, affronted by the forward deployment of American missiles in Turkey) stared into the abyss.

Diefenbaker’s government offered support to the American government led by President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), but not unconditionally. Diefenbaker preferred the idea of a UN-led intervention, something that got no traction whatsoever in Washington, DC. This tepid response led to heightened tensions between Canada and the United States. The crisis overall contributed to Canadian fears that the Americans would, by their own miscalculated actions, precipitate a nuclear holocaust. The Liberal Prime Ministers Pearson and Pierre Trudeau would follow Diefenbaker’s lead and were publicly critical of American foreign policy. (Joe Clark’s government was in office only briefly but evinced a more cooperative position generally.) After 20 years of sanctions, Ottawa opened discussions with China in 1968 and diplomatic recognition of the PRC in 1970. Canada (along with Mexico) did not sever diplomatic ties with Cuba, and Trudeau was the first Western leader to pay a visit to Havana. In 1972, Cold War drama played out on ice in the Canada-USSR Hockey Series (aka: the Summit Series); while the overarching narrative was West versus East, capitalism versus communism, the event generated in Canada considerable respect for the Soviet players, their coaches, and their fans, and thus put at least a small dent in the Iron Curtain. More formally, in 1976, Trudeau travelled to Cuba to meet with Castro. This was in keeping with Trudeau’s own foreign affairs perspective, and it was also in sync with the emerging American philosophy of détente . Nonetheless, growing American involvement in Cold War client-state wars from Vietnam through Africa and Latin America led to growing anti-American feeling among the Canadian public and that was reflected in Ottawa’s foreign policies.

The tenor of Cold War relations between Canada and the United States would continue to be mostly critical until Trudeau’s Liberal government was replaced in 1984 by Brian Mulroney (b. 1939) and a Conservative majority. Mulroney’s campaign to improve relations with the Americans led to a close personal relationship with United States President and arch–Cold-Warrior Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) and, eventually, to a free trade agreement between the two countries (discussed in Section 9.12 ). The dying years of the Cold War, then, would see Canada’s position vis-à-vis the Soviet Bloc harden into something that more closely resembled the American view.

• The Cold War began at the end of World War II and persisted through the 1980s. It represents a polarization of global forces into two camps: America and its allies (represented by NATO and sometimes the UN) and the Soviet Union with its supporters (represented by the Warsaw Pact and sometimes China).
• Canada’s entry into the Cold War came with the disclosure in 1946 of a spy ring led by Igor Gouzenko.
• Involvement in NATO and support for the UN led Canada to be an active participant in the Korean War in 1949.
• In 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, and the age of superpowers was launched.
• Canadian defence strategies in the Cold War changed as Canada aligned more with the United States and prepared for a missile assault across the Arctic. Ottawa also launched an anti-fifth–column strategy to reduce the threat of homegrown communists.
• Involvement in peacekeeping missions began in this period as an attempt to find diplomatic solutions became a Canadian priority, in contrast with the American strategy of containment.

Long Descriptions

Figure 9.16 long description:  Cover of  The Globe and Mail from February 18, 1946. The headline is “FBI Joins Ottawa Spy Hunt: Investigation Now Focused on Munitions Department.” Subheadings in the article include “Documents Included In Roundup,” “Investigation of Spy Ring In Canada Started Last Fall,” and “Secrecy Is Maintained By Officials.” Beside this text are photos of a smiling man and woman. [Return to Figure 9.16]

Figure 9.19 long description: Map depicting Cold War military alliances. There are five different factions depicted:

• Founding members of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) in 1949. This includes Portugal, France, Monaco, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Italy, San Marino, and Vatican City.
• Entry into NATO: Greece and Turkey (1952), West Germany (1955), Spain (1962).
• Founding members of the Warsaw Pact in 1955. This includes the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
• Entry into the Warsaw Pact: East Germany (1956).
• Withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact: Albania (1968).

[Return to Figure 9.19]

Media Attributions

• Private G.U.I. Lambert, B2nd Battalion Royal 22E Regiment, reads comic book in slit trench, Korea, 28 May, 1951 © Paul E. Tomelin, Canada Dept. of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada (PA-128806) Copyright Government of Canada. No restrictions on use.
• First load of uranium concentrate flown from Great Bear Lake to Fort McMurray, 1935 © W.L. Brintnell, Library and Archives Canada (PA-102850) is licensed under a Public Domain license
• FBI Joins Ottawa Spy Hunt, 1946 © The Globe and Mail is licensed under a Public Domain license
• Meeting between Dr. Norman Bethune (left) and Nieh Jung-Chen (centre), Commander-in-Chief of the Chin-Ch’a-Chi Border Region © Library and Archives Canada (PA-114787) is licensed under a Public Domain license
• Korean War, 1950–1953 © OpenStax. Download for free here is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license
• Cold war Europe military alliances map © Wikipedia user San Jose is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
• DEW Line, 1960 © United States Government is licensed under a Public Domain license
• Two Canadian soldiers scan the Egypt-Israel frontier during a desert patrol, 1962 © Canada Dept of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada (PA-122737) is licensed under a Public Domain license
• Boundless. “Origins of the Cold War” . Boundless U.S. History. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015, accessed 17 Dec. 2015 from  https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-cold-war/ ↵
• Boundless. “Origins of the Cold War” . Boundless U.S. History. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015, accessed 17 Dec. 2015 from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-cold-war/ ↵
• Boundless. “North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)” . Boundless U.S. History. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015, accessed 17 Dec. 2015 from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-cold-war/ ↵
• Reg Whitaker and Gary Marcuse, Cold War Canada: The Making of a National Insecurity State, 1945-1957 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 396-401. ↵
• From which the comedy troupe, This Hour Has 22 Minutes , derives its name and news-show format. ↵

The prolonged period of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, based on ideological conflicts and competition for military, economic, social, and technological superiority, and marked by surveillance and espionage, political assassinations, an arms race, attempts to secure alliances with developing nations, and proxy wars.

Cold war era conflicts conducted by third party countries in which the United States and the Soviet Union had a stake, rather than a direct conflict between the two superpowers.

Espionage agents who are deeply embedded in the host community and dormant, awaiting activation.

Post-WWII espionage case involving a clerk at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa who disclosed the existence of a spy ring in Canada.

A term coined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to refer to portions of Eastern Europe that the Soviet Union had incorporated into its sphere of influence and that no longer were free to manage their own affairs.

The alliance of pro-Soviet (or USSR-dominated) countries in Eastern Europe in the post-WWII era, consisting of Poland, East Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and, more loosely, Albania. Yugoslavia, another communist-dominated country, regularly declared itself separate from the Eastern Bloc; formalized in the mutual security agreement, the Warsaw Pact, 1955.

The American policy that sought to limit the expansion of Communism abroad.

The theory that if Communism made inroads in one nation, surrounding nations would also succumb one by one, like a chain of dominos toppling one another.

An international body established in 1942; originally was the rough equivalent of the Allied Nations in the Second World War; expanded to a post-war role in 1945 as an intergovernmental assembly and series of agencies tasked with reducing international tensions and addressing international social and economic crises.

A war that began in 1950 and ended inconclusively in Armistice in 1953; this was Canada's first Cold War era military engagement, and it involved significant casualties.

1864, 1906, 1929, 1949; a succession of international agreements on the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians.

Colloquial term used to describe security campaigns conducted in capitalist democracies during the Cold War which targeted, mainly, communists but also homosexuals and any other group regarded as potential seditious.

Cold War-era surface-to-air missiles with no less than a 5,000 km range; typically nuclear-tipped.

The 1956 invasion of Egypt by Israel, followed by France and Britain with the objective of seizing the Suez Canal. The failure of England and France to inform their former Allies -- especially the United States -- of their plans led to a rift between Britain and the USA in particular. Canada's response, led by Lester Pearson, was to propose a large multi-national peacekeeping force in the region.

The relaxation of tensions and improvement of relations between the West and the East in the Cold War during the 1970s.

Canadian History: Post-Confederation Copyright © 2016 by John Douglas Belshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Canada During the Cold War

Canada, better known for its scientific knowledge rather than military prowess, pursued a moderate anti-communist policy during the Cold War while aiding struggling countries and promoting peace in the world arena .

The cold war which began in the 1940s between America and the then USSR dragged on till the last decade of the 20 th century. Canada, being a well-respected country and neighbor of the USA, did play quite a significant role in the war. It lent its troops to aid the allies to fight during the First Great War. During the early phases of the Cold War, Canada gave showed its support to the Western powers that included the United Kingdom and America (Conrad & Finkel). Canadian foreign policy showed no tolerance to Communism, while the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) closely monitored the activities of Labour Unions and the communist party, fearing communist subversion. Even Canada’s businesses were against the labor movement inspired by Bolshevism.

One event that triggered the intensification of the Cold War was the “Gouzenko Affair” exposing Soviet Union’s espionage plans in 1947. Igor Gouzenko, who was working for the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa as a Cipher clerk, let out several documents indicating Soviet Union’s secret plans to steal nuclear secrets from the Allies. This increased mass hysteria over Communism in the western world and revealed USSR’s true potential as an enemy.

This was followed by the enforcement of stricter military policies such as the removal of homosexuals and soldiers with communist ideas from military service. The USA was also pressurizing Canada to destroy the country’s Communist Party and Trade Unions as it was seen as a Communist influence. However, Canada did not give in to pressure as it felt these organizations functioned within constitutional provisions.

As the McCarthy Era mongered communist fear, Herbert Norman, the Canadian Ambassador to Egypt, was suspected of being a traitor. Norman committed suicide in Cairo in 1957 following America’s suspicions over his loyalty. The event marked the beginning of anti-Americanism in Canada, as American Communist paranoia and anti-trust were viewed as the reason for Norman’s death. However, this event did not stop the Canadian Government from providing intelligence information to the United States. But, it did lessen Communist paranoia among citizens and Canada’s involvement in the Cold War.

Canada, despite its moderate anti-communist policies, had diplomatic ties with China and Cuba, even when America cut off political relations. Again during the Korean War, Canadian troops helped civilians by helping to distribute food and essentials. Canada also vehemently announced its opposition to American policies in the Vietnam War. Canadian troops did not go into battle during this war but played the role of peacekeeper. Canada under the Pearson administration was not ready to completely assimilate America’s policy of actively intervening in the politics of other foreign countries to fight communism. Canada’s foreign policy during this time focussed on lessening global aggression inflicted under the name of curbing Communism (Smith

259). One of the noteworthy accomplishments of Canada was its part in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) initially formed for peace-keeping. It also formed the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) along with the USA to maintain the security of the North American border. However, Canada showed its opposition to the dragging Cold War by declining to join the OAS (Organization of American States).

Works Cited

Conrad, Margaret & Finkel, Alvin. (1998). History of Canadian People 1867-present.

Smith, Denis. (1988). Diplomacy of Fear: Canada and the Cold War, 1941-1948. Toronto Press.

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History of Canada

Canada in the Cold War

Canada was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) in 1958, and played a leading role in United Nations peacekeeping operations—from the Korean War to the creation of a permanent UN peacekeeping force during the Suez Crisis in 1956. Subsequent peacekeeping interventions occurred in the Congo (1960), Cyprus (1964), the Sinai (1973), Vietnam (with the International Control Commission), Golan Heights, Lebanon (1978), and Namibia (1989–1990).

Canada did not follow the American lead in all Cold War actions, sometimes resulting in tensions between the two countries. For instance, Canada refused to join the Vietnam War; in 1984, the last nuclear weapons based in Canada were removed; diplomatic relations were maintained with Cuba; and the Canadian government recognized the People's Republic of China before the United States.

The Canadian military maintained a standing presence in Western Europe as part of its NATO deployment at several bases in Germany—including long tenures at CFB Baden-Soellingen and CFB Lahr, in the Black Forest region of West Germany. Also, Canadian military facilities were maintained in Bermuda, France, and the United Kingdom. From the early 1960s until the 1980s, Canada maintained weapon platforms armed with nuclear weapons—including nuclear-tipped air-to-air rockets, surface-to-air missiles, and high-yield gravity bombs principally deployed in the Western European theatre of operations as well as in Canada.

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Cold War Canada: The Making of a National Insecurity State, 1945-1957

by Gary Marcuse and Reginald Whitaker

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Published: September 1996

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Canadians might expect that a history of Canada's participation in the Cold War would be a self-congratulatory exercise in documenting the liberality and moderation of Canada set against the rapacious purges of the McCarthy era in the United States. Though Reg Whitaker and Gary Marcuse agree that there is some evidence for Canadian moderation, they argue that the smug Canadian self-image is exaggerated.

Cold War Canada digs past the official moderation and uncovers a systematic state-sponsored repression of communists and the Left directed at civil servants, scientists, trade unionists, and political activists. Unlike the United States, Canada's purges were shrouded in secrecy imposed by the government and avidly supported by the RCMP security service. Whitaker and Marcuse manage to reconstruct several of the significant anti-communist campaigns. Using declassified documents, interviews, and extensive archival sources, the authors reconstruct the Gouzenko spy scandal, trace the growth of security screening of civil servants, and re-examine purges in the National Film Board and the trade unions, attacks on peace activist James G. Endicott, and the trials of Canadian diplomat Herbert Norman.

Based on these examples Whitaker and Marcuse outline the creation of Canada's Cold War policy, the emergence of the new security state, and the alignment of Canada with the United States in the global Cold War. They demonstrate that Canada did take a different approach toward the threat of communism, but argue that the secret repression and silent purges used to stifle dissent and debate about Canada's own role in the Cold War had a chilling effect on the practice of liberal democracy and undermined Canadian political and economic sovereignty.

Gary Marcuse is an independent journalist and film-maker who lives in Vancouver.

Reginald Whitaker is a professor of Political Science, York University.

'Read Cold War Canada . Contemplate our collective folly of the Cold War years. Reflect on the damage done to our society and to blameless individuals. And wonder, if you will, how today's pursuit of political correctness will look 40 years on. Whitaker and Marcuse make a solid, if disquieting, contribution to the Canadian story. It's a bonus that their book is such a good read.' Ottawa Citizen Ottawa Citizen

'Toronto political scientist Reg Whitaker and Vancouver film-maker Gary Marcuse have produced a thoroughly researched and elegantly written book on Canada's first 10 years in the Cold War. Their work is pioneering because nothing hitherto on this subject has been so thoroughly researched and so critically pursued.' Allen Mills, Winnipeg Free Press

' Cold War Canada goes well beyond the often cursory and statist texts by historians like J.L. Granatstein and remains a must for anyone who believes that the Canadian state is necessarily or has always been a model to be followed.' Larry Woods, The Prince George Citizen

' Cold War Canada is a much fuller portrait of this period than any previous Canadian book on the topic and broadens our understanding of this country's history.' Len Scher, The Toronto Star

' Cold War Canada is an informative, insightful, and important indictment of the Canadian security establishment and Cold War policy.' Quill & Quire Quill and Quire

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Effect Of The Cold War On Canada’S International Role

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