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Canada, the United States and the Cold War

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Canada, the United States and the Cold War
After the end of World War Two, the world was split into two, east and west. This marked the beginning of an era called the Cold War. The Cold War was the most subtle war in history, but the world came very close to a nuclear war that had the potential to inevitably wipe out mankind. The two main opponents in this war were the Soviet Union and the United States. With Canada being the United States neighbour to the north and close to The Soviet Union geographically, Canada allied itself with the United States. This union cause a lot of political trauma, but it brought a lot of new technology to Canada and helped strengthen our relationship with the United States. Therefore Canada did ally with the United States, but at the same time Canada remained a sovereign nation and remained able to make its own independent decisions despite being allied with one of the world’s superpowers. Canada lies right between the United States and the Soviet Union, so Canada was caught right between this arms race and tensions between the two countries. Although mostly siding with the United States, Canada often did not agree with the American’s policy and often had good relationships with countries that the United States were not on good terms with.
An example of this is Canada and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and his relationship with Fidel Castro and Cuba. Amidst the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis which occurred on October 15th 1962 was the closest the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union came to nuclear war. This conflict took place over a course of fourteen days, and was the peak of the Cold War, because during those fourteen days, both the Americans and the Soviets had their fingers on their triggers and the entire world was watching as the worlds first nuclear war was nearly about to start, which could have very easily caused the end of the world. This crisis would forever go down in history as the event that nearly made a Cold War, hot.
This crisis



Cited: Brune, Nick. Defining Canada: History, Identity, and Culture. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2003. Print. Ganeri, Anita, Hazel Martell, and Brian Williams. Pocket History. Bath: Parragon, 2000. Print. Jockel, Joseph T. Canada in NORAD, 1957-2007: a History. Montreal: Published for Queen 's Centre for International Relations & the Queen 's Defence Management Program by McGill-Queen 's UP, 2007. Print. "NATO:History of NATO:The North Atlantic Treaty Organization:Information about NATO." Tripod - Succeed Online - Excellent Web Hosting, Domains, E-mail and an Easy Website Builder Tool. Web. 27 May 2010. . "Seeking Sanctuary: Draft Dodgers." CBC Archives. Web. 27 May 2010. . Stern, Sheldon M., and Sheldon M. Stern. The Week the World Stood Still: inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford UP, 2005. Print. "Trudeau, Pierre Elliott." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Web. 27 May 2010. . "Vietnam War." The History Place. Web. 27 May 2010. . "Why Not Simply Abolish NATO?" GlobalResearch.ca - Centre for Research on Globalization. Web. 27 May 2010. . Wright, Robert. "Three Nights in Havana: Pierre Trudeau, Fidel Castro and the Cold War World by Robert Wright, Ph. D." Welcome to HarperCollins Publishers Canada. Web. 27 May 2010. .

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