Canadian Nuclear Weapons
The Untold Story of Canada's Cold War Arsenal
- Publisher
- Dundurn Press
- Initial publish date
- Feb 1998
- Category
- Nuclear Warfare, Canada, General
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781459713185
- Publish Date
- Feb 1998
- List Price
- $8.99
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
"We are thus not only the first country in the world with the capability to produce nuclear weapons that chose not to do so, we are also the first nuclear armed country to have chosen to divest itself of nuclear weapons."
Pierre Trudeau United Nations, 26 May 1978
From 1963 to 1984, US nuclear warheads armed Canadian weapons systems in both Canada and West Germany. It is likely that during the early part of this period, the Canadian military was putting more effort, money, and manpower into the nuclear commitment than any other single activity. This important book is an operational-technical history and exposÈ of this period.
Its purpose is to bring together until-recently secret information about the nature of the nuclear arsenal in Canada, and combine it with known information about the systems in the US nuclear arsenal. The work begins with an account of the efforts of the Pearson government to sign the agreement with the US necessary to bring nuclear weapons to Canada. Subsequent chapters provide a detailed discussion of the four nuclear weapons systems deployed by Canada: the BOMARC surface-to-air guided interceptor missile; the Honest John short range battlefield rocket; the Starfighter tactical thermonuclear bomber; the VooDoo-Genie air defence system. Each chapter also includes a section on the accidents and incidents which occurred while the weapons were at Canadian sites. The final chapter covers the ultimately futile efforts of the Maritime Air Command and the Royal Canadian Navy to acquire nuclear weapons. An appendix includes the text of the until-now secret agreements Canada signed with the USA for the provision of nuclear weapons.
Illustrated throughout with photographs and diagrams, and supported by extensive transcriptions of original documents, Canadian Nuclear Weapons will be of great value both to scholars and interested laypersons in its presentation of what has been a deeply hidden secret of Canadian political and military history.
About the author
John Clearwater is a former editor-in-chief of the prestigious Arms Control Reporter journal and a visiting professor of political science at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He earned his PhD from the War Studies department of King's College, University of London, and has worked as a military and strategic analyst and consultant for twenty years.
Editorial Reviews
"Canadian Nuclear Weapons is an important and groundbreaking work that describes the technical and operational history of Canada's nuclear arsenal."
Canadian Book Review Annual