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Espionage (Igor Gouzenko)
Igor Gouzenko was a sypher clerk for the Soviet embassy. He had evidence that the Soviets were spying on Canada. He made this knowledge public by breaking into the newsroom of the Ottawa Citizen. This was a wake up call to Canada and is viewed as the start of the cold war in Canada. -
Berlin Airlift
Soviets placed a blockade on the allied sector of Berlin to starve the population into Soviet support. The allied response was a unbelievably massive air supply- flying night and day to feed the city. -
Korean War
After WWII Korea was split into North Korea and South Korea. The north controlled by the Soviet Union and the south controlled by the U.S. Stalin ordered communist North Korea to attack democratic South Korea. The Chinese were worried the U.S. would attack them. Canada played a big role with the UN during this war. -
The Colombo Plan
The Colombo Plan was created during a Commonwealth conference of foreign ministers that was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in January of 1950. The plan's purpose was to bring nations in the Asia and Pacific regions closer together through foreign aid, and assistance for the economic and social development of a region. Canada was one of the founding members in 1950. -
Avro Arrow
The Avro Arrow was a supersonic, long ranged interceptor designed by Avro Canada and began development in April of 1953. Its role was to protect against the threat of Soviet bombers attacking North America over the Arctic. However, due to rising costs, lack of an interested market willing to buy the plane, and decreased threat from bombers, and other reasons, the project was cancelled on February 20th, 1959. The reslt was a loss of over 29 000 jobs. -
Suez Crisis
Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Egyptians refused passage through the Suez Canal and charged anyone who wanted to pass in order to raise money to build a dam. The Israelites, English, and the French took exception to this and declared war on egypt. Canada and the U.S. worked to cool them off because they wanted to avoid war. Soviet Union threatened to bomb Paris and London. -
Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution was a revolt against the People's Republic of Hungary, and its communist government. The revolt was successful and fighting began to stop by the end of October, but Soviet troops were sent in to intervene. By November 10th -the end of the conflict- over 2500 Hungarians and 700 Soviets were killed. Over 200 000 Hungarians fled as refugees from Hungary, and 37 000 came to Canada, mostly to Toronto, where its existing Hungarian population had raised 900 000 people. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 to seperate the East and West and to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West. It was a symbolic representative of the division between democracy and communism in the cold war. It was tore down in 1989 and it was celebrated world wide. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis is considered the closest the world ever got to nuclear war. It began when Nikita Khrushchev decided to construct nuclear missiles in Cuba, intended as defencive measure to deter the U.S. from attacking the Soviet Union. The problem arose when reconniassence photos showed Soviet missile construction in Cuba. American President John Kennidy was informed and he created EX-COMM. After much tension, the conflict was resolved and Khrushchev removed the missile installations. -
Peacekeeping Mission - Cyprus
In 1964, Canadian peacekeepers began their mission on the island of Cyprus, involving the conflict between the Turkish and Greek inhabitants of the nation. In total, over 25 000 Canadian Forces members served in Cyprus, with the loss of approximately 125 Canadians. Canada was involved for 29 years, until 1993, making it one of Canada's longest peacekeeping missions. -
SALT Agreement
The SALT, or Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty was a series of conferences between the U.S. and Soviet Union regarding the limitation and control of strategic nuclear missiles. Out of this agreement came the ABM treaty and the Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. Basically, the treaties prohibit the construction of additional nuclear missile systems, and the arsenals could not exceed a certain limit. -
Summit Series
An 8 game series between the hockey teams from Canada and the U.S.S.R. Canada won but barely and learned that they weren't ahead of the rest of the world in hockey as they thought. -
Afghanistan, 1980s
A civil war broke out in Afghanistan after the USSR withdrew its occupation in the early 1980's. Through the early 1980's, the UN general council attempted to find ways to end the war, yet they were unsuccessful. The war had devistating effects, resulting in over 4.5 million refugees and having over half of the population displaced. The war crippled the country's economy. In 1987, an agreement was signed to remove foreign troops from Afghanistan. -
Soviet Olympic Boycott
The 1980 summer Olympic Games, held in Moscow, Russia were boycotted by Canada, and an incredible 64 other countries. The massive boycott occured because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan a year earlier. There was an Olympic Boycott Games held in Philadelphia for boycotting countries that wished to participate. In response to this, and because the coutries felt threatened, the USSR and 17 other communist supporting countries boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles, California. -
Strategic Defence Initiative
The Strategic Defence Initiative was proposed by Ronald Reagan in 1983. It was popularily known as "Star Wars" because of the popular George Lucas film, and partly beause its projecs tended to be very ambitious and unrealistic for the period's tehnology. The projects focused on protection from Russian ballistic missiles, and included various types of orbital missile interceptors and sensors, and directed energy weapons such as x-ray and chemical lasers. Past treaties also had to be considered. -
Gorbachev's Revolution
In March 1985, Gorbachev came to power in the USSR. He proposed and started a political and social "revolution" that would adopt a more capitalistic style. One of his policies was the perestrokia.It allowed for things such as independant actions of various companies and ministries. It also gave citizens of the USSR much more freedom than they previously had. The perestrokia arguably lead to the breakup of the Soviet Union, and is considered one of the causes of the end of the Cold War.
