Canada's role in the cold war.
Created by katieritchie on Jan 14, 2011
Last updated: 01/19/11 at 10:51 PM
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Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR on March 15th, 1990. Gorbachev was trying to create a reform. The first time the Congress met, their sessions were aired. This created an expectancy of a reform and many citizens were critical.
As the Soviet government became weaker with time, slowly the dissolution began. Starting on January 19th, 1990 and ending on December 31st, 1991. Gorbachev's pro-reform and communist ways made some of the people change theirs becoming for democratic. Being split down the middle with demands on both ends of the political spectrum, the Soviet Union collapsed due to the inability to compromise.
The Berlin Wall came down finally after too many years of being up. Protesters flooded the wall and chanted "we will stay here." This signified the joining of East and West. A press conference was held on November 9th, 1989 and soon after the demolition began. The end was finally torn down on October 3rd, 1990.
The Summer Olympics in 1980 took place in Moscow. The boycott was in response to the protesting by the Americans for the Soviet War in Afghanistan. Sixty-five countries chose not to participate in these Olympics. Canada, China, South Korea, the United States, and West Germany were just five of these sixty-five countries. All of these countries in support of the boycott.
The cuban missile crisis started on November 22, 1962. American's always travelled to Cuba and owned a fair share of hotels, business, and homes. When Fidel Castro came into power, he kicked the U.S. out and they lost everything. Trade was stopped. Travel had come to an end. They had no contact with each other. John F. Kennedy was in power at the time and after taking pictures of Cuba and discovering missile sites, he had a decision to make. After much deliberation, he decided on a blockade surrounding Cuba to block off all trading ships. Canada's role in this battle was a confusing one. The navy ships being sent were all under order by Diefenbaker. However, NORAD tried to order Canadian ships around giving them mixed messages. Being a threat to the airspace, NORAD most likely thought they should have a bigger say in this than Diefenbaker.
The Berlin Wall was put up to separate West Berlin from East Berlin. East Berlin was losing too many of their citizens and jokes formed about it becoming desolate. To prevent people from going into West Berlin, a wall surrounded the city. Everything was cut off from West Berlin and a blockage made it impossible for trucks to go by. Food and supplies had been cut off. However, the decision was made to have an airlift. Everyday there would be 500 bomber planes going into West Berlin to deliver 1,000,000 people food and supplies.
In 1960, Canada signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. To solve the problem of the Bomarc-B decision, Canada signed the treaty clearly stating that your country is not allowed any nuclear power. 189 states currently signed under the treaty.
The Avro Arrow was a supersonic jet. It was built by the AV RO company and was the fastest jet ever made. Canada would have been one of the top countries in jet engineering. However, it was too expensive. On February 20th, 1959 the project was cancelled. Security was ordered to take apart each one piece by piece so that other countries couldn't get their information or try to recreate it.
At the time of the Cold War, American, the Soviet Union, France, China, and Britain were the only ones with nuclear power. America wanted Canada to help them with defence in case of a crisis. Canada was on the fence. They could a) Take the Bomarc-B and help their alliance or b) Reject it and respect their citizens. There was a debate and an election during this time. However, in the 1960's Canada signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
NORAD was created on May 12th, 1958 under dual command of Canada and the United States. It was created to help defend the airspace around the two countries. NORAD headquarters were set in Colorado on Cheyenne Mountain.
The Distant Warning Line was a series of radar stations over in Canada's arctic. It was created in order to detect bombers from the Soviet Union.
Lester Bowles Pearson was honoured in 1957 with the Nobel Peace Prize. Due to his vision and skill, he established an international police force to put an end to the Suez Crisis in 1956. He played a big role in the UN. He felt that Canada should play a peaceful part and do what it can to help out without creating more turmoil.
The Vietnam War started on November 1st, 1955 and ended nearly ten years later on April 30th, 1975. Canada did not participate in the Vietnam War. In fact, Canada criticized the war. Canada's troops were peacekeepers. They were deployed for a short time in 1975 to help with the Paris Peace Accords.
The Korean War was a military conflict between the Republic of Korea and Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The United Nations supported the Republic while the People's Republic of China supported the Democratic People's.The war started on June 25th 1950 and ended on July 27th 1953 thanks to an armistice. Formerly ruled by Japan, the new divide of the country resulted in a clash of opinions and ended up in a war.The Canadian forces entered the war in December of 1950. The 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry landed in December and shortly after, in May the CASF joined. There were 21,940 Canadians serving in the army, 3600 naval personnel, 11 army officers, 298 other ranks, and 3 sailors.
NATO was created on April 4th, 1949. The United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland all signed on that date. The countries signed it almost as a warning to the Soviet Union. It the Soviet Union attacked any of those countries, they would go to war for a third time.
Shortly after World War II ended, the Gouzenko Affair started. On September 5th, 1945 Igor defected as a cipher clerk withholding 105 official documents on Soviet espionage. After retaining news that his family was being sent back home to the Soviet Union, he quickly defected. Wanting be in Canada, he took the documents and showed them to the RCMP. Igor Guzenko and his family was given a new identity. His children went through school learning about him but unaware of the fact that Igor was their father.
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