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Canada in the Cold War - Janelle Dobbie
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Espionage in Canada
Igor Gouzenko was a member of the Soviet Union positioned in Canada to find out information on Canada's plans. He ended up betraying the Soviets. He stole documents and provided information about the Soviets to Canada. Many believe the "Gouzenko Affair" is the event that started the Cold War. Igor directly helped Canada personally. -
Berlin Airlift
The Soviet Union had set up a water and land blockade in West Berlin in an attempt to force out the Allies. The US supported a major air effort to transport goods, including food and fuel for heating, over to the West Berliners by aircraft. May of 1949 the Russians lifted the blockade, after 277 000 flights and over 8 000 tons of goods being flown in daily. The pilots and airmen were mainly American, British and Canadian people. -
Role in Commonwealth - Colombo Plan
A Commonwealth Conference of Foreign Ministers met in Colombo, Sri Lanka in January of 1950 and created an organization called the Colombo Plan. It was created to provide a structure so that international cooperation efforts can be improved to raise the standards of the people living in the region on economic and social issues, mainly focused in the Asia-Pacific region. The main focus of all of the plan's activities is on human resource development. -
Korean War
North Korea, South Korea, the United States, and China all fought in the first major battle over Communism. North Korea was under communism and South Korea had the support of President Truman, the US President at the time, who was a democrat. The US had begun to push back North Korea when China began to fear that war would enter their country, so they fought together with North Korea. The war was deemed a stalemate, and over 4 million lives were lost. -
Continental Defense - Avro Arrow
The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was an advancement in technical and aerodynamic studies in Canadian aviation. It was created to be the Royal Canadian Air Force`s main interceptor from then on and through the sixties. Shortly after it was created and tested a huge political debate began, ending in the cancellation and destruction of the aircraft. -
Suez Crisis
The Suez Canal flows from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and Britain and France wanted the right to control over it, but Egypt's new government officials believed it should be under Egyptian control. Egypt rejected the US and Britain's support to build a dam in the Nile and raised their own support. British and French Politicians joined with Isreal in a attack against Nassar, Egypt's ruler. In March of 1957, after many trials, Egypt finally gained control of the canal. -
International Politics - Hungarian Revolution
A student demonstration against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet ideas attracted thousands of people and quickly became a nationwide uprising. After many shootings and disputes political changes were considered, but eventually reverted back to a new Soviet government. -
Peacekeeping Missions - Cyprus & Congo
More than 400 Candians served as signalmen in Congo, from 1960 to 1964, to help them restore and maintain their law and order. From April of 1964 to June 1993 Canada moved into the situation between Turkish and Greek Cypriots in Cyprus, to peacekeep once again. Tens of thousands of men and women served more than once in Cyprus. -
Berlin Wall
The German Democratic Republic created a barrier that completely blocked West Berlin from East Germany and East Berlin, another Soviet communist action. Ronald Reagan challanged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the wall to symbolize increasing freedom in the Eastern Bloc. On November 9, 1989 people began coming to the wall and demolishing it with hand tools. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union was placing their nuclear missiles in Cuba and the US was very uncomfortable with this. The issue became the closest we have ever come to nuclear war. Both sides were prepared and ready to fight with their nuclear weapons if it was needed, two men are responsible for protecting us from that war. They were President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, they agreed on no invasian and retracted their nuclear installations. -
Nuclear Question - SALT Agreement
The United States and the Soviet Union were spending more than $50 million a day on nuclear weapons, between them. In November of of 1969, they both agreed that it was becoming ridiculous and something had to change. They decided on taking a step back, with Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). -
Canada-USSR Summit Series
The Summit Series was a set of 8 hockey games between the Soviet and an NHL-inclusive Canadian national team. It was their first competition and Canada won the series. In the end both sides were considered victorious, the Soviets gained respect and showed everyone that both sides best players were on an equal playing field. -
Afghanistan - Soviet War
The Soviets invade Afghanistan in an attempt to impose a communist government. The Soviets communist ways were not taken lightly by the Islambic tribes of Afghanistan and a war broke out. The Afghans had the support of the United States and Pakistan. Eventually the Soviets backed off and announced that all of their soldiers had left the country. It had lasted until February of 1989; around 1 million Afghans were killed and 50 000 Soviet casualties, wounded or killed. -
Gorbachev Revolution – Perestroika - 1980s
The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced a movement to restructure the Soviet political and economic system. It was meant to make socialism work better so it could meet the needs of Soviet consumers. Though his attempts did fail in the end he changed the way the world looked at his country. This event is said to be one of the major reasons that the Soviet Union broke apart. -
Olympic Politics - Moscow, 1980
The United States, joined by Canada and other countries, wanted to show their distaste with the Soviet war in Afghanistan so they protested at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. On January 20, 1980 Jimmy Carter, American President, told the Soviets that if their troops did not leave in one month than the Americans would boycott the Moscow Olympics. They US did end up boycotting those olympics, then in 1984 the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics in Los Angeles to get them back. -
US Star Wars - Strategic Defence Initiative
The Strategic Defence Initiative was first introduced by the US President at the time, Ronald Reagan. The idea was to be able to have ground and space-based systems to help protect the United States if it was ever attacked by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. It was named ``Star Wars`` in the media after the popular film by George Lucas in 1977.
