Canada During the cold war Era

A World divided• Following the defeat of the

Axis Powers the world quickly entered a new era.

• The tensions between the Soviets and Americans meant that many nations would be forced to choose sides.

• Canada acting as a ‘middle power’ tried to chart her own course, but given our strong economic, cultural and geographic ties to the Americans, we quickly fell into their sphere of influence.

The Gouzenko Affair of 1945 set the tone early for Canadian-Soviet relations during the Cold War.

Mutual defenseNORAD

• Formed in 1957.

• US and Canada.

• Concerned with air defense.

• Constructed the Pinetree, Mid-Canada and DEW radar lines.

• Meant that US troops would be stationed on Canadian soil.

• These defenses were made obsolete with the introduction of ICBMs.

NATO• Formed in 1949.

• US, Canada, Western Europe.

• An attack on one is an attack on all.

• Designed to counter the Soviet threat in Europe.

• Canada sent forces to Europe.

• Defense forces had to coordinate their capabilities with the US military.

The United Nations• The United Nations (UN) was set up immediately following

WWII.• Based on the idea of collective security.• The UN is made up of the General Assembly and the

Security Council.• The ‘Big Five’ members have permanent seats on the

Security Council and an all important veto. • The ‘Big Five’ powers are now the USA, UK, France, Russia

(USSR) and China (ROCPRC).• Ten other nations make up the non-permanent members of

the Security Council and are voted in for two-year terms.• Decisions in the SC may pass with the votes of nine members,

provided they are not vetoed by any of the ‘Big Five’ powers.

UN in ActionThe Korean

Conflict • War breaks out in 1950.

• Canadians send thousands of troops to Korea.

• Once China entered the war on the side of the North Koreans, the dynamic of the conflict changed overnight.

• Lester Pearson urged all sides to agree to a cease fire.

• The conflict halted with a ceasefire in 1953. The Korean peninsula remains a global hotspot to this day.

The Suez Crisis• Egyptian president Nasser

decides to nationalize the Suez Canal in 1956.

• Ignoring the UN – Britain and France supported an Israeli invasion of the canal zone without asking the US.

• The Soviets offered military aid to Egypt.

• Pearson suggested the use of a UN peace keeping force. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions.

Source:http://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2003/8/26/fb8835f3-5d3a-49e4-8719-a14f4c397f42/publishable.jpg

Cold War Leaders• 1948-1957 LIB Louis St Laurent• 1957-1963 CON John Diefenbaker• 1963-1968 LIB Lester Pearson• 1968-1979 LIB Pierre Trudeau• 1979-1980 CON Joe Clark• 1980-1984 LIB Pierre Trudeau• 1984 LIB John Turner• 1984-1993 CON Brian Mulroney

No nukes!• PM Diefenbaker had agreed to accept the

placement of American Bomarc missiles on Canadian following the scrapping of the Avro Arrow in 1959.

• The placement of the missiles was a key issue in the 1963 election. Pearson supported the placement of the missiles while PM Diefenbaker was opposed, as he argued that it might be wiser for Canada to chart its own course.

• Diefenbaker was defeated and Pearson became the new PM.

• The missiles would later be removed under the leadership of Pierre Trudeau. Canada has remained a non-nuclear power.

1, 2, 3, 4! We don’t want your stinking war!

• During the presidency of Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) American intervention in Vietnam continued to escalate. As the war dragged on, and the draft continued, more and more young Americans began to join the anti-war movement.

• During this time period, US-Canada relations became strained, as we refused to support the war. Canada also housed large numbers of draft dodgers, some of whom made their new home here on Vancouver Island.

• LBJ, known to have a short fuse, allegedly manhandled Lester B. Pearson on a visit to the presidential retreat at Camp David for speaking out against the Vietnam War.

Trudeaumania

Trudeau’s course• In 1970, Trudeau recognized the People’s Republic of

China, as it was beneficial for Canadian business and trade.“Living with you [the USA] is in some ways like sleeping with

an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

• Trudeau also cut national defense in favor of social spending.

• While the East-West divides were still important North-South divisions also began to be analyzed by academics. Trudeau attempted to increase aid to impoverished nations. He developed trade and aid as a part of his foreign policy. A good example of a middle power exercising soft power.

Source: Pierre Trudeau speech to the National Press Club, Washington DC , March 1969.

The Mulroney era• After Trudeau’s retirement and John Turner’s short-

lived prime ministership, the Conservatives swept back into power under the leadership of Brian Mulroney.

• The business climate improved as regulations were curtailed and a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the USA was signed in 1987.

• Relations between Canada and the US warmed considerably as President Reagan and Mulroney saw eye-to-eye on many issues.

• In 1992 Mulroney agreed to join NAFTA, a free trade agreement that included Mexico the treaty came into effect in 1994.

The end of History?• During the end of the 1980s, the Soviet Union

began to collapse under the weight of its own bureaucratic structure.

• It could no longer keep up with the dynamism of unbridled American capitalism and had to cut its defense spending.

• Gorbachev adopted the policies of perestroika (reconstruction) and glasnost (openness) in a last ditch effort to reform the economics and politics of the Soviet Union.

• In 1989, discontentment with the Soviet model spread throughout Eastern Europe. In November of that year the Berlin Wall came down. Two years later the Soviet Union ceased to existed and broke up along old ethnic lines.

Tiananmen• China also experimented with periods of openness in the

1980s.• Beginning in 1979 Deng Xiaoping experimented with

introducing capitalist reforms and setting up tax free investment zones in certain coastal cities.

• Exports to the West quickly increased and many Chinese ‘communists’ began to get rich themselves. Manufacturing capacity grew quickly, as did China’s long stagnant GDP.

• In 1989, Chinese university students began to gather in Tiananmen Square asking for political reforms. Unfortunately, the Chinese leadership brutally crushed the young democracy movement just a few weeks later.

New world order• The first Gulf War broke out in 1990 when Iraq decided to

invade the oil rich country of Kuwait.• The US invasion named ‘Operation Desert Storm’ saw a

massive influx of US forces in the area. This increased military presence in the Middle East continues to this day.

• If Vietnam was the first war to be broadcast on the nightly news in America, the Gulf War was the first war to be broadcast across the country and around the world, 24/7.

• Some began to argue that we had entered a new age, an age where the democratic-capitalist system would see no further ideological resistance and would come to dominate all other forms of government, Francis Fukuyama’s so-called end of history.

globalization

• Increased communication, transportation and trade links have ‘globalized’ our world.

• China will be the world’s largest economy by 2025.

• By 2050 India will be the world’s most populous nation.

• We will move toward a multipolar world.• North Americans will have to compete on a

new level.• Education will be paramount to success.

Check for understanding

• What are the roles of NATO and NORAD?

• What is the structure of the UN? What is its purpose?

• What happened in Korea and Suez in the 1950s?

• What is and was Canada’s nuclear policy?

• Why was the Vietnam War so divisive?

• What is meant by East-West and North-South?

• Who were some of our Cold War prime ministers?

• What was foreign policy like under Trudeau?

• What was Mulroney’s major accomplishment?

• What were glasnost and perestroika?

• What was the significance of Tiananmen Square?

• What factors have led to increased globalization?