Canada`s Role in American Intelligence Operations during the Cold War

Canada 's Role in American Intelligence Operations during the Cold War

Until recently , it appeared that the Cold War , like the poor , would always be with us . Since the end of World War II , a kind of uneasy equipoise has existed between the two hostile ideological blocs generally referred to as the East and the West . Underpinning this division has been the issue of defense . The state of undeclared hostility - the phrase Cold War is not accidental - between the two groupings has meant that a perpetual state of military readiness has been

maintained for more than 40 years . Defense and intelligence service , then , is inseparable from Cold War . But when we speak of the Cold War , what do we mean ? Generally , it is a generic term , used to cover the situation described above . But viewed from the perspective of different countries , in different regions , the concrete reality of the Cold War takes on varied aspects . Each country brought to the Cold War its own history . Traditional foreign policy and defense problems did not evaporate in 1945 . Instead , they became the old wine that had to be poured into the new bottle called the Cold War . For every country and every region , the circumstances after 1945 required different responses if their security was to be guaranteed . New military and diplomatic problems required changed thinking 'National security ' and `security intelligence ' are today such a familiar phrases in political and legal usage that it is difficult to imagine its absence . Yet it is a relative newcomer , virtually unknown until the coming of the Cold War . This work considers Canada 's role in American intelligence operations during the Cold War There . Much of the Cold War planning for defense took place in the context of alliances some of it took the shape of economic planning . War planning in peacetime required new governmental bodies and had a domestic context . Such matters are inextricably linked to the American intelligence operations during the Cold War and as such , are among the issues discussed below . The decision by the Canadian government to create a peacetime independent intelligence organization the Communications Security Establishment (CSE , was a natural product of systematic changes induced by the Cold War . Initially , the CSE was primarily concerned with intelligence and analysis . This work will demonstrate how intelligence operations became crucial and indispensable tools during the Cold War

Over the last 20 years , the Canadian historiography of the Cold War seems to have overcome the previously rigid and bitter polarization of `orthodox ' and `revisionist ' historians in favor of a presumed new and more objective synthesis known as post-revisionism . This approach , which comprises - it must be emphasized - many different positions , is especially characterized by increased attention to the strategic and geopolitical aspects of the dispute between the USA and the Soviet Union , as opposed to ideological explanations . The Cold War is consequently interpreted simply as a `conflict for the balance of power

The undeniable merits of the post-revisionist school , which promoted a more balanced analysis of...