Cold war

The Cold War: The War At Home

Avro Arrow

Canada: Post WWIINewfoundland joins Canada

• On March 31, 1949 Newfoundland entered confederation as the tenth province.

• Joey Smallwood spearheaded the union and became Newfoundland’s first premier

• In a referendum in Newfoundland, 45% of the people voted in favor of creating a responsible government, while 41% voted to join Canada, and 14% voted for a commission Government.

• This vote was considered unclear, and in a second vote union with Canada obtained a majority vote.

Joey Smallwood

Boom in resource development• A wave of prosperity swept Canada in the fifties.

Western oil and Natural gas reserves yielded new sources of power for Canadian industry. Hydroelectric projects were initiated to harness electricity

• As new resources were discovered new industries sprung up to support them. Ex the St. Lawrence Seaway was constructed to aid in the transport of materials. Building the St. Lawrence Seaway

• A great deal of this economic growth was largely due to foreign investment, much of it American. This contributed to the wealth of Canada during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Unfortunately this also led to future conflicts over the ownership and financial control of Canada’s resources

The Baby Boom Canada’s population grew more quickly in the 15 years after WWII than at

any other time. By 1961 there were 50% more Canadians than there had been at the end of the war. This period becomes known as the Baby Boom.

Many Canadian soldiers had married overseas and brought their “war brides” home.

People began to move to the “suburbs,” shopping malls, cars and expressways became part of the Canadian way of life.

In this post-war period more immigrants came to Canada than at any time since the turn of the century. Many were refugees or displaced persons from Eastern European countries like Poland, Yugoslavia, and Latvia. Now that their homelands were ruled by communists they felt they could no longer live there.

By 1951, only 47% of Canadians had their roots in Britain. The multicultural society had arrived

In Canada today around 27% of the total population, belong to the children of baby boomers.

This generation is often called Generation Y or the echo generation 'echo of the baby boom.’

Case Study: Canadian Sports Heroes of the 40’s and 50’s

• Barbara Ann Scott King was a Canadian figure skater. She was the 1948 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (1947–1948), and a four-time Canadian national champion (1944–46, 48) in ladies' singles.

• Known as "Canada's Sweetheart", she is the only Canadian to have won the Olympic ladies' singles gold medal

• Joseph Henri Maurice "The Rocket" Richard was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1942 to 1960.

• The "Rocket" was the most prolific goal-scorer of his era, the first to achieve the feat of 50 goals in 50 games and the first to score 500 goals in a career

• Richard won the Stanley Cup eight times in Montreal, He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961

The Fabulous Fifties• Economically things looked good in the 50’s. • Television became a common feature in Canadian

homes. Mass Marketing becomes much more effective and is beginning to be aimed at the growing teen population.

• The fifties brought prosperity and excitement. But rapid change can be hard. The divorce rate began to creep up. The move to the suburbs increased reliance on the automobile. Cities, fashions, lifestyles and values were transformed in the 50’s

• Rock and Roll emerged as a new form of musical expression and drew attention to the new culture of youth that was developing because of the Baby Boom

• The 50’s marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the US and this would effect Canada as well.

• TV Commercial on Ford

TV Commercials• Barbie• Rice Krispies

Socialism in Canada• The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, or

CCF was elected in 1944 in Saskatchewan under the leadership of Tommy Douglas. Mouseland

• The CCF favored socialist policies, designed to increase government involvement in the economy and improve social programs.

• During the cold war the CCF faced a great deal of criticism and were occasionally denounced as communists.

• In 1961 Douglas resigned from the CCF to become the national leader of the newly organized New Democratic Party (NDP)

• Ultimately the CCF and the NDP under the leadership of Douglas, were responsible for the introduction of the Medicare Act to Canada. Social Credit

Tommy Douglas

The Cold WarIn the 1950’s cold war politics divided the world

between two opposing ideologies: totalitarian Communism and democratic Capitalism both competing for control of the rest of the world (mostly developing countries or former colonies of Western powers.)

The developing world became the battleground for the two new superpowers in a series of proxy wars.

Fear of Communism/The Second Red Scare: • In the US McCarthyism began to spread at the instigation

of American senator John McCarthy, who accused many Americans in and out of government of being communists and started, causing many to lose jobs and be black-listed

Igor Gouzenko• Igor Gouzenko was a clerk for the

Soviet embassy in Canada who gave away Soviet spy secrets and defected.

• Gouzenko is often credited with helping start the Cold War. Interview

• His defection highlighted the distrust between the West and Eastern Powers

The Cold War Continued: Korea

• In 1951 the Cold War centered on Korea• This was the first open warfare between

Communist forces and pro-Western forces. • Within days of the invasion of South Korea,

Canada offered 3 naval destroyers to the UN force. By the end of the Korean war, about 25 000 Canadians saw action in the conflict. 312 Canadians were killed

• The Korean War involved the USSR and China vs. the USA and its allies under the leadership of the UN. The Korean War ended in 1953 only to be replaced by a long and bloody war in French Indo-China, that would eventually draw the US into combat in Vietnam.

Cold War: The Arms Race• In 1951 the US tested its first hydrogen bomb. • Through out the Cold War the US and the Soviet

Union develop weapons of Mass destruction. Building bombs nearly 1000x as powerful as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

• The USSR followed by testing its first hydrogen bomb in 1953.

• People in North America begin to build Fallout Shelters, to hide in, in the event of a nuclear attack

• The Arms Race was on. By the end of the decade, guided missiles were beginning to replace bombers. The US and the USSR were now able to attack targets 10 000 km away in less than 1 hour.

American anti-communist propaganda

Anti-capitalist propaganda

Canada and the Cold War Canada had a precarious position in the Cold War. Canada is located between the two major players in

the Cold War the US and the USSR. Canada was firmly on the side of the US in the Cold war and became a member of both, NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organization and NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) this changed in 1981 to (North American Aerospace Command), which acted as the North American defense system.

The Communists had their own defensive organization known as the Warsaw Pact

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

• NATO countries include:• Norway, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, France,

Belgium, Netherlands, West Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey and of course the USA and Canada

• Warsaw countries include:• The Soviet Union, East Germany,

Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania

Canada and the Cold War: the Avro Arrow

• During the 1950’s the Canadian government was involved in the development of a new military jet aircraft, the Avro Arrow.

• It was expected to be one of the most advanced war planes of its kind.• The Arrow was initially approved by the Liberal government in 1953,

however when the conservatives took power under John Diefenbaker (AKA Dief the Chief) in 1957, he canceled the Arrow project.

• This led to a great deal of controversy: thousands of people lost their jobs.

• People charged that the government had abandoned a made-in-Canada project in favor of a made in the US defense policy. They claimed that the entire Canadian aircraft industry was crippled by Diefenbaker's decision.

• Despite being partially responsible for the creation and passage of the Bill of Rights in 1960, Diefenbaker’s decision to ground the Arrow contributed to the Conservative party defeat in 1963.

Avro Arrow Maiden Flight

The Suez Canal Crisis• The French built the Suez Canal in the 1860’s, a major

trading route. In 1955 Britain agreed to withdraw from Egypt.

• The Egyptians, under the Leadership of Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, began the completion of the Aswan High Dam across the Nile to control water flow for flood prevention, irrigation, etc.

• In 1956 because of Nasser’s dealings with the USSR, Britain and the US cut off aid for the Aswan project.

• In return Nasser seized the Suez Canal Company. He also encouraged more terrorist attacks on Israel, and invited the USSR to help him finish the dam. This made the British very angry.

• Suez Canal News Report

The Suez Canal Crisis: Continued• The Commonwealth, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand,

were not sympathetic to what was viewed as an example of British imperialism.

• Canada did not care about the Canal, however it was very concerned about the effect of the crisis on international relations.

• Canada realized that while the US might not agree with Nasser’s actions, they would not support Britain in an aggressive action against Egypt.

• France and Israel supported Britain. • The Israelis were supposed to attack Egypt on Nov. 1, 1956. The plan was

that the French and English would use this as a pretext to step in and guard the vital international waterway.

• Their hope was that Nasser’s government would then topple.• On Oct. 29 Israeli paratroops struck. On Oct. 30, Britain and France

ordered both Egypt and Israel to stay 16km away from the Canal. • The USSR responded with an ultimatum: Atomic Bombs would rain down

on London and Paris if the invasion did not end.

The Suez Canal Crisis: Continued

• The U.N. Security Council ordered Israel to withdraw, Britain and France used their vetoes for the first time.

• The issue was taken before the U.N. General Assembly. There, 65 nations supported a resolution denouncing the invasion. Canada abstained from the vote.

• Canada was torn over the issue. A small majority supported the British invasion. Prime Minister St. Laurent did not.

• The Prime Minister and then Secretary of State for External Affairs, Lester Pearson told England that there would be no Canadian support for the Attack on Egypt.

• Pearson proposed that an “emergency UN force” be sent in. This is known as the UNEF.

• This gave the French and British a pretext to withdraw from Egypt. Nassar agreed that the force was acceptable.

• Pearson had found the formula that kept Britain and France from humiliation, and the UN, NATO and the Commonwealth survived the confrontation intact.

• In 1957 Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Suez Canal Crisis.

• This is the climax of Canada’s role as first of the middle powers.

Lester B. Pearson

The creation of OPEC• Oil producing nations like Iran started OPEC in 1960s • The founding members of OPEC are Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and

Venezuela. • In 1973, OPEC declared an oil embargo in response to the United States'

and Western Europe's support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War (Arab-Israeli war) of 1973. The result was a rise in oil prices from $3 per barrel to $12 and gas rationing.

• U.S. gas stations put a limit on the amount of gasoline that could be sold, closed on Sundays, and limited the days gasoline could be purchased based on license plates

Bomarc Missiles• First long-range anti-aircraft missiles in

the world developed by Canada with the help of the Americans.

• They were put all around the coasts and the border to protect against soviet planes.

NORAD• Stands for North American Aerospace

Defence Command.• The US pressured Canada to setup a missile

defense program to warn of incoming nuclear weapons.

• The program was established in 1958.

Norad Central Control

The DEW Line• Stands for Distance Early Warning Line and

was used in the fifties.• A system of radar stations in the far north that

would detect soviet bombers.• Became outdated as it became possible for

countries to launch nuclear weapons without planes using intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMS.