Cold War Time Line

By: Liam Madu

United Nations 1945

• Thought the UN’s primary mandate was peace keeping, the division between the US and USSR often paralyzed the organization, generally allowing it to intervene only conflicts distant from the Cold War. After the Cold War the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties. Taking on more missions is ten years than it had in the previous four decades.

The UN in 1945. In light blue, the founding members. In dark blue, protectorates and territories of the founding members.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations#/media/File:United_Nations_Member_States-1945.png

Gouzenko Affair 1946

• Working as a clerk in the soviet embassy, Russian citizen Igor Gouzenko had found out about a soviet spy group in the Canadian government. Gouzenko brought many documents to prove it and also gave them to the Ottawa journal. The RCMP, Department of Justice, and the Prime Minister found out about the spy ring because of this. After his apartment had been broken into, only then did Gouzenko get the protection from the police and Government. Many arrest were made and the issue had gotten Canada to realize they were now apart of a new war. The Gouzenko affair was one of the main causes for the Cold War.

This is a picture of Igor Gouzenko Hiding his face under a mask to protect his identity while on a show.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Gouzenko#/media/File:Igor_Gouzenko_hooded.jpg

NATO 1949

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), created in 1949, was Canada's first peacetime military alliance, placing the nation in a defensive security arrangement with the United States, Britain and the nations of western Europe. During the Cold War, NATO forces provided a frontline deterrence against the Soviet Union and its satellite states. More recently the organization has asserted its members' strategic interests in the global campaign against Islamic terrorism.

The helicopter-carrying destroyer HMCS Nipigon foreground ploughs through North Atlantic waters, February 1981, with a Sea King helicopter

and one of the tankers in the backgroundhttp://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/nato-north-atlantic-treaty-organization/

Korean War 1950-1953

• The Canadian Forces were involved in the 1950–1953 Korean War conflict and its aftermath. Canada participated on the side of the United Nations in the Korean War, with 26,000 Canadians participating in the Korean War, and Canada sending eight destroyers. Canadian aircraft provided transport, supply and logistics. 516 Canadians died in the conflict, 312 of the deaths were from combat. After the war, Canadian troops remained for three years as military observers.

Canadian artillery fighting during the Korean war. Battery of guns from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery supporting troops of 2nd Battalion,

Royal Canadian Regiment, during the Korean War, June 1951.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_in_the_Korean_War#/media/File:2nd_Battalion,_Royal_Canadian_Horse_in_Korea.jpg

Suez Crisis 1956

• The 1956 Suez Crisis was a military and political confrontation in Egypt that threatened to divide the United States and Great Britain, potentially harming the Western military alliance that had won the Second World War. Lester B. Pearson, who later became prime minister of Canada, won a Nobel Peace Prize for using the world’s first, large-scale United Nations peacekeeping force to de-escalate the situation.

Lester B. Pearson addressing a committee at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, 1945.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/suez-crisis/

NORAD 1956

• The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is a bi-national United States and Canadian organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America. Aerospace warning includes the monitoring of man-made objects in space, and the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, through mutual support arrangements with other commands. Aerospace control includes ensuring air sovereignty and air defense of the airspace of Canada and the United States.

Officers observe an explosion on the side of a mountain

http://www.norad.mil/AboutNORAD/NORADHistory.aspx

Avro Arrow

• The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a Delta-winged Interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The Arrow is considered to have been an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry. The CF-105 (Mark 2) held the promise of near-Mach 2 speeds at altitudes of 50,000 feet (15,000 m) and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force(RCAF) primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond.

The Avro Arrow was born out of the necessity for the protection of Canada. During the height of the Cold War (1950's) era, the Soviets had introduced new long range bombers, that were capable of flying over the North Pole to attack North America. This was a very serious threat as the continent lived in fear of a surprise nuclear attack. Production was started and less than 4 years later, the Arrow was completed. Roll out was October 4, 1957. First flight was March 25 1958.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow#/media/File:DSC_6934_-_Canadian_Pride.jpg

Cuban Missile Crisis

• The 1962 stationing of Soviet missiles in Cuba, which posed a threat to the United States and Canada, brought the world to the edge of nuclear war. Although Canadian forces were placed on heightened alert, Prime Minister John Diefenbakers hesitant response to the crisis aggravated U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and fuelled already difficult relations between Canada and the U.S. in the 1960s.

Fidel Castro embracing Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, 1961

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis#/media/File:Castro-kruschev.jpg

Nuclear Weapons / Bomarc Missiles 1963

• In the fall of 1958 Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s Conservative government announced an agreement with the US to deploy two squadrons of the American ramjet-powered "Bomarc" antiaircraft missile in Canada. This controversial defence decision was one of many flowing from the 1957 North American Air Defence (NORAD) agreement with the US. The Bomarc Missile Crisis was a Cold War-era dispute over whether Canada should house nuclear missiles as part of its NORAD air defence agreement with the United States.

The decision of the Conservative government in 1958 to cancel the Avro Arrow and deploy two squadrons of the American Bomarc missile caused a crisis in Canadian defence policy (courtesy Canadian Aviation Museum).

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bomarc-missile-crisis/

Vietnam War 1964-1973

• Canada did not fight in the Vietnam War and diplomatically it was "officially non-belligerent". The country's troop deployments to Vietnam were limited to a small number of national forces in 1973 to help enforce the Paris Peace Accords.Nevertheless, the war had considerable effects on Canada, while Canada and Canadians affected the war, in return.

A de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou transport plane on landing approach, Vietnam War, 1971.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_and_the_Vietnam_War#/media/File:DHC-4_Caribou_Vietnam.jpg

PM Trudeaus’s Foreign Policy 1970s

• Trudeau’s foreign policy was assembled from within a conceptual framework analogous to his view of Canada and Canadians that emphasized nation-building within a general vision on the great fault-lines of global relations: NorthSouth and East-West. For all the twists in his foreign policies, Trudeau was remarkably consistent in his commitment to individual civil rights, and to the rights of individual states, to be free from arbitrary interference in their affairs, which necessarily involved something of a contradiction.

Trudeau after being nominated to represent riding of Town of Mount Royal, June 6, 1965.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Trudeau#/media/File:Trudeau_Nomination.jpg

Mulroney's Foreign Policy's 1980s

• Mulroney's government opposed the apartheid regime in South Africa. Mulroney met with many opposition leaders throughout his ministry. His position put him at odds with the American and British governments, but also won him respect elsewhere. Also, external affairs minister Joe Clark was the first foreign affairs minister to land in previously isolated Ethiopia to lead the Western response to the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia; Clark landed in Addis Ababa so quickly he had not even seen the initial CBC report that had created the initial and strong public reaction.

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney bids farewell to dignitaries after a state visit. Mulroney is accompanied by his wife, Mila. Location: Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Mulroney#/media/File:Mulroney_DF-SC-85-12406.jpg