Lecture 10 HIST 382

Summary & Outline

This lecture reviews aspects of the Canadian-American relationship in the 19th century, but the emphasis is on the 20th, and the late 20th at that. Canada and the United States edged closer during the 1930s and World War II, then emerged as Cold War allies against the Soviet Union. This was an uneasy position at best for Canada, which eased little until the end of the Cold War. At about that same time, however, Canadian-American relations were both tightened and strained by the issue of free trade.

I. Meaning of the metaphor: We stand on guard?

II. Continental union as a 19th-century proposition

III. Canada and the US, 1900-1945

A. Approaching defensive alliance in the 1930s

B. Collaboration as allies during WW II

IV. Cold War Canada

A. NATO

B. Korea and the "special relationship"

C. NORAD

D. Nuclear weapons issue

E. Settling into an uneasy alliance, with opportunities for autonomy

V. Free Trade

Ties to Texts

No direct ties to texts, although I suspect if you reflect on the values and attitudes implicit in Canadian-American relations, you’ll quite a few connections to points raised by Lipset.

Links for Lecture 10
Diefenbaker Canada Centre	Archives and museum devoted to Dief the Chief, Conservative P.M. from Saskatchewan—source for our “Letters to Dief” handout.
The Diefenbunker	Great piece of Cold War Canadiana.
Embassy of Canada	Canada’s outpost on Pennsylvania Avenue since 1944.
Alcan Highway: 95th Engineer Regiment - Colored	Amazing story of black American soldiers building the Alcan.

HIST 382