Cold War Canada: The Making of a National Insecurity State, 1945-1957Canadians 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 towards 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 underminedCanadian political and economic sovereignty. |
Contents
Never Again From World War to Cold War | 3 |
Cold War Foreign Policy | 113 |
In the Defence of Canada | 138 |
Copyright | |
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activities alliance American anti-Communism anti-Communist association atomic bomb Bengough British cabinet Cana Canada Canadian government CASCW cent charges civil servants Cold Cold War commissioners Communism Communist party defence democratic diplomatic Duplessis élites Embassy employees Endicott espionage evidence External Affairs files Film Board forces foreign Fred Rose Gouzenko affair Grierson Halperin ideological intelligence investigation John Grierson Korea labour later leaders left-wing Lester Pearson Liberal Mackenzie King Marshall Plan McCarthyism McLean ment military Montreal Moscow Mounties movement NATO nists Norman Robertson nuclear Nunn officials organizations Ottawa Padlock Law Peace Congress political position postwar Prime Minister purges Quebec RCMP role royal commission Russian scientists secret Security Panel Security Service social Soviet Union spies St Laurent subversive suspects threat tion Toronto trade unions Truman United Nations USSR War Measures Act wartime Washington Western Wilgress witch-hunt workers