Canada’s Involvement In the Cold War

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cold-war/

The Cold War is a term used to describe the rising tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union (the USSR) from 1945, to the collapse of the soviet union in 1991. There were many significant events occurring in this time period, and the world was almost pushed over the edge into total nuclear war before the Soviet Union eventually collapsed. But how was Canada involved in it, and what things/repercussions did we cause?

Our first major contribution to the Cold War was housing a Russian man named Igor Gouzenko, who in September 1945 stole top secret documents showing Russian spies at work in the USA, Canada, and Britain. Between 1947-1953,

we also contributed to the formation of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) which was a security pact designed to defend the Western countries from Soviet invasion. We also fought in the Korean war against the communist North Korea.

The development of aircraft that could carry nuclear weapons was put in to place, and the fear of nuclear war was around all throughout the 1950’s to the 1980’s. Canadians actively fought against the idea of nuclear war, and worked hard to give the other countries the same idea. Both the superpowers of the USA and Russia agreed that had

one country fired, both of them would be completely annihilated and so the Cold War came to a stalemate before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

I think that Canada’s involvement in the Cold War was quite significant although we are almost not mentioned whatsoever during discussions of this even. We were one of the big countries forming NATO, which is one of the most important things put in to place to stop communism and I think that alone is a very big impact. If we had not fought the North Koreans and pushed back the Chinese troops supported by Russia during the Korean war, these countries may have had a different idea and/or been more confident in their military efforts which may have in the end led to all out nuclear war. So in a way, Canadians contributed greatly to saving the world, and we are great for that.