HIST 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Cuban Missile Crisis, Lester B. Pearson, Cabinet Of Canada
8 May 2017
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Wanted to avoid being swallowed entirely into the us sphere of influence. Thanks to geography, size, and power of its neighbor. Convinient dual solution to the imperatives of canadian foreign policy (defense against ussr and checking the influence of the us on canada) Lester pearson, then the external affairs minister, proposed this atlantic alliance to the cabinet in 1948. Negotiations with the us led to nato, which included the us, canada, and northern. Committed to the defense of europe from soviet attacks (and less likely, north american protection) Canada was hesitant with higher commitments because the military budget had been reduced bigtime since 1945. 70,000 british troops were stationed at the suez canal which was owned mostly by a british company. Canada, for the first time, went independently of the uk. Canadian cabinet, especially peterson, saw british policy as outdated and foolish. Pearson understood that the anglo-french policy wouldn"t work longrun.
