The Cold War emerged after World War II and divided the world into capitalist and communist blocs led by the United States and Soviet Union respectively. As the two superpowers stockpiled nuclear weapons without direct conflict, tensions were high. Canada played a middle power role by mediating international issues and sharing intelligence through espionage. The threat of mutually assured destruction kept nuclear weapons from being used but consumed resources in an arms race until tensions eased with the Cold War's end in the late 1980s.

1. Unit 3
Ch. 11 The Cold War
Text p. 273-289
There is only one thing worse than one nation having an
atomic bomb and that’s two nations having it.
- Harold C Urey
1934 Nobel, Chemistry

2. The end of WWII
• Brought peace– temporarily
• New concern: achieving worldwide, peaceful coexistence
• BUT how?– with new war technologies ex. ABombs, this changed war and made it more
global than ever.
• New war: Cold War 1948-1990

3. Canada & the Cold War
• This war divided the world into 2 groups of allied
countries, or BLOCS (the East & the West)
• US + Allies- dominated WEST- DEMOCRACY
VS.
• Soviet Union + satellite states- dominated
EAST- COMMUNISM
• Both nations became SUPERPOWERS
• From 1948-1990 they avoided a world wide war but
the power struggle created many conflicts that
brought the world close to obliteration

4. Canada & the Cold War
• The Cold war was not “hot” (like WWII) but had
a variety of conflict:
▫
▫
▫
▫
Espionage (spying)
Threats and counter threats
Arms race, eg. nuclear weapons
Satellite nations were developing (new African
countries)
▫ Proxy wars, eg. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan

5. Cold War Countries

6. Espionage
• After the war, Western countries wanted to
believe the Soviets were still allies- US and FDR
felt differently
• Soviets were breaking pre-war boarder rules (Ex.
Yalta, Ukraine) and US turned
• Governments wanted more information about
the Soviets and this lead to ESPIONAGE
• =secret intelligence gathering and this was an
essential tool for all Cold War countries

7. Canada & Espionage
• Defense Dept. created
Joint Intelligence Bureau
• Task was to create
reports on topics of
interest to the
government, set up
secret radio post in NWT
to eavesdrop on the
Soviets
• Most fascinating story on
CDN Cold War
espionage- The
Gouzenko Affair

8. Canada’s Middle Power Status
• Middle Power status describes CAN’s military
capacity- WWII contributions helped define us
• Canada earned the world’s respect, yet many
Canadians were not aware of the influence that
the country had – this influence would be key in
the Cold War
• Canada became a global mediator when it
came to Cold War conflicts

9. How was Canada LITERALLY in the
middle of the Cold War?
• Fig 11-4 page 276 & discuss why geography
matters in this conflict…

10. US Response: The Marshall Plan
• A plan by the U.S. Secretary of State George
Marshall to rebuild Europe through massive
investment
• Approximately $12.5 Billion
• Goals of this investment were:
▫ Democratization
▫ Capitalism
▫ Tight connections with the U.S. and rest of the
West
▫ Therefore would stop spread of Communism

11. The Nuclear Arms Race
• Sept 23, 1945- Soviet Union announced that it
had exploded its first atomic bomb
• Responding defensively, Western governments
began to also build up these weapons
• These weapons would achieve MUTUAL
DETERRANCE
• But if one side used an atomic bomb, the other
side would respond by using its atomic weapons.
• This is called, MAD

12. MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction
• Idea: each side was deterred from using their
nuclear weapons against the other side because
the other side would quickly and automatically
use their nuclear weapons against them
• The paradox of MAD
▫ i.e. a massive build-up of nuclear weapons so that
they won’t be used

13. • There were so many nuclear weapons built that
both sides could have blown the world up many
times over
• Lots of money was spent on defence contracts
• When the Cold War ended, the hope was that all
of the money that had been going into the arms
race, could now be spent on good things like
helping the poor, cleaning the environment etc.
▫ these kind of things would be the benefits of
peace, or the “peace dividend” in a New
International Order that was supposed to be born

14. Gouzenko Affair & Cold War terms
• Read article on p. 275 and answer questions
#1 & 2
• Complete the key terms for Ch. 11 if not done
already