BOOK EXCERPT PASSAGES Fatal distraction: Lester Pearson and the unwarranted primacy of peacekeeping

J.L. Granatstein

The eminent Canadian historian Jack Granatstein frames a provocative question in the title of his timely book Who Killed the Canadian Military? His answer: every prime minister since Diefenbaker has de-emphasized or degraded the role and relevance of the as instruments of national security and the national interest. Even from post-Cold War strengths of 90,000 in the early 1990s, ’s forces have declined by half in the decade since, in which a new and unpredictable threat, global terrorism, has emerged. Quite apart from the mustering out of Canada’s forces and the rusting out of their equipment, Canadians have seen Canada primarily in a peacekeeping role, ever since Lester B. Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for proposing the Emergency Force in the Middle East in 1956. What was peacekeeping then has become today a very different and more dangerous vocation. In this exclusive excerpt from his new bestseller, Granatstein asserts that “Mike” Pearson inadvertently played a role in diminishing the strength of Canada’s military.

« Qui a tué l’armée canadienne ? », s’interroge l’éminent historien canadien Jack Granatstein, qui a coiffé de ce titre provocant son dernier ouvrage (Who Killed the Canadian Military ?). Tous les premiers ministres depuis Diefenbaker, répond-il, qui ont successivement amoindri ou déconsidéré le rôle de cette institution chargée d’assurer notre sécurité et de défendre l’intérêt national. Déjà érodées au lendemain de la guerre froide avec 90 000 soldats au début des années 1990, les Forces canadiennes ont vu depuis cet effectif décroître de moitié alors qu’apparaissait l’imprévisible menace du terrorisme international. Tandis que s’étiolait leur armée et que rouillaient ses équipements, les Canadiens ont continué d’investir leur pays du rôle de gardien de la paix qui avait valu le prix Nobel de la paix à Lester B. Pearson, distingué pour avoir proposé en 1956 une force d’urgence des Nations unies au Moyen-Orient. Or, il est beaucoup plus complexe et périlleux de « garder la paix » dans le monde actuel que ce n’était le cas alors. Dans ce passage exclusif de son best-seller, Jack Granatstein soutient que Lester B. Pearson aura involontairement contribué à l’affaiblissement de l’armée canadienne.

ho killed the Canadian mil- 1956. Created during the Suez crisis, well; and the government obviously itary? Lester B. Pearson — UNEF separated the invading armies of views it as the employment of choice W inadvertently. Canadians the British, French, and Israelis from for the Canadian Forces. But.... have been enamoured with the idea of the Egyptians and tried to freeze a situ- It’s the “but” that begins to raise peacekeeping ever since Secretary of ation in a troubled region while diplo- problems. What no one remembers State for External Affairs Pearson won mats sought a lasting resolution. any longer is that, when Pearson cob- the Nobel Prize in 1957 for his role in What could possibly be wrong with bled the force together, few in Canada establishing the United Nations peacekeeping? Canadians clearly like cheered. Pearson’s efforts at the United Emergency Force (UNEF), the UN’s first the concept; our soldiers, sailors, and Nations in New York won scant praise large peacekeeping force, in November airmen and women do it extremely from those who denounced him for

POLICY OPTIONS 67 MAY 2004 J.L. Granatstein PASSAGES selling out Canada’s two mother coun- of the Western alliance united against and France, all with large military tries. The British and the French Soviet expansionism. Prime Minister forces, were not acceptable in UN oper- believed they were resisting “a new St-Laurent had campaigned in ations to the majority of members. Hitler” in Egypt’s Colonel Gamal to muster support for the alliance and Abdel Nasser. At home, the Liberal helped to create a huge majority in the ot that Canada, the old Canada, minister faced denunciations from House of Commons for adhesion to N was always acceptable to every- some Progressive Conservatives for sid- the North Atlantic Treaty. From 1950 one. The Egyptians in 1956 had ing with the United States against on, he had also supported the nation’s balked at Canadian participation in Britain, and Prime Minister Louis St- rearmament. Canada had fought two the UN Emergency Force, even if Laurent’s statement that the days of world wars overseas in the first half of Pearson had saved Cairo’s destruction by proposing it. The Pearson’s Nobel prize had a harmful effect on the Canadians were part of Canadian military because it began the process whereby NATO, along with the British and French Canadians viewed their soldiers as the world’s natural invaders. Their flag, the peacekeepers, well trained, well equipped, instinctively now all-but-forgotten Red impartial, and fair. Ensign, had a Union Jack in the corner. Their soldiers “the supermen” of Europe were over the twentieth century, and Canadians wore British-pattern battle-dress uni- only fuelled the controversy. Some understood that collective security and forms. Worse still, the infantry battal- analysts even suggested that Pearson’s defence mattered. The horrors of the ion initially chosen for UNEF service role in New York helped John past strongly shaped their present. was the British-sounding Queen’s Diefenbaker’s Tories defeat the Liberals The country’s armed forces in the Own Rifles, not the fictitious East in the 1957 election. But when mid-1950s, when St-Laurent and Kootenay Anti-Imperialist Brigade Pearson was awarded the Nobel Prize, Pearson worked closely together, that Pearson wryly conceded later the mood changed almost at once. reflected this belief that the military would have been more appropriate. Peacekeeping was now Canada’s very was important and necessary. The The other available units had equally own contribution to the world. army, some 50,000 strong, was a bal- imperial names — the Princess anced force with infantry, armour, and Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry et Pearson’s Nobel prize had a artillery, but also with the skills in (PPCLI), the Royal Canadian Y harmful effect on the Canadian logistics, engineering, and communi- Regiment, the Black Watch (Royal military because it began the process cations required for complex opera- Highland Regiment of Canada), and whereby Canadians viewed their sol- tions abroad. Canada had a fleet, the Royal 22e Régiment. diers as the world’s natural peacekeep- including an that, in a It took extraordinary efforts to get ers, well trained, well equipped, pinch, could be used to carry the President Nasser to agree to Canadian instinctively impartial, and fair. There army’s heavy equipment, and it had participation in UNEF, and Pearson was some truth in that description in squadrons of transport aircraft, the air- told the Egyptian Ambassador to the the 1950s and 1960s, when the crews to fly them, and the ground UN: “We had even been careful to Canadian military was well trained crews to maintain them. In 1955 the exclude from the force any Canadians and well equipped and Canadians three Canadian armed services, all well with noticeably English accents.” For went off to Lebanon, the Congo, West equipped and well trained, numbered all that extraordinary Canadian self- New Guinea, Yemen, the Arab-Israeli 118,000 and, two years before, cost an abnegation, the Queen’s Own Rifles, borderlands, and . They served incredible 7.8 percent of the gross their lineage, uniforms, and flag an well in trying to prevent small con- domestic product of just over $20 bil- affront to Cairo, never made it to flicts from exploding into large wars. lion (compared to a pathetic 1.1 per- UNEF, as an armoured reconnaissance But Canadians never really understood cent in 2003). Few other medium-sized squadron and less-malevolently titled what their peacekeepers were doing, countries acceptable to the UN’s mem- (but perhaps even more useful) logisti- why they were good at their jobs, and ber states and secretariat had those cal units took their place. why they were needed. And because capabilities. Canadians, moreover, they fell in love with peacekeeping, could operate in French as well as in he Canadian contingent and its Canadians began to fall out of love English. That made our peacekeepers T vehicles arrived at Port Said with the true purpose of a military — very useful in the Cold War when the aboard the carrier HMCS Magnificent, to be ready to fight wars. Great Powers — the United States and proudly flying the same White Ensign Canada had been part of NATO the Soviet Union — and major powers as Britain’s . The since April 1, 1949, a charter member with colonialist pasts such as Britain Egyptians, reasonably enough, threat-

68 OPTIONS POLITIQUES MAI 2004 Fatal distraction: Lester Pearson and the unwarranted primacy of peacekeeping BOOK EXCERPT ened to sink the ship, which was itself scarcely distinguishable from a vessel of the Royal Navy, and the American officer in charge of clearing the Suez Canal had to contact Magnificent’s captain and beg him to haul down his colours. At the last possible minute, matters were smoothed over, but the whole episode was humiliating to the , Canada, and Pearson. The Secretary of State for External Affairs did not forget and, when he became prime minister seven years later, he set out to get Canada a distinctive Canadian flag and, more hesitantly, to support the integration and unification of the three Canadian forces as a way to minimize their too-obvious British connections. Several factors made Canada eager to participate in the Middle East and in other peacekeeping oper- ations. As a Western power and a member of NATO, Canada had a vital national interest in holding off the Soviet threat. During the Suez Crisis, the split between Britain and France — the aggressors — and the United States was huge. Canada’s actions were directed as much to repairing the breach among allies as to restor- ing peace in the area. Indeed, the The Gazette, Montreal two goals were positively insepara- Lester B. Pearson’s Nobel Peace Prize prompted generations of Canadians to fall in love ble. Anything else played into with the UN and with peacekeeping as a Canadian vocation, to the detriment of Moscow’s meddling hands. In the Canada’s defence forces and military preparedness. Nearly half a century later, Canada’s forces are mustering out, while their equipment is rusting out. former Belgian Congo in 1960, to Who Killed the Canadian Military? asks Jack Granatstein. Canadians did. cite another example, East and West were beginning to battle for a however, and External Affairs Cyprus, hit the ground running. This resource-rich area, one key explana- Minister Paul Martin Sr. went to solution served Canada’s desire to be tion for the Canadian peacekeeping work on the telephone, calling for- a peacekeeper, but it also saved a crit- commitment there. In Cyprus in eign ministers around the world. In ical part of the Western alliance, 1964, where Britain had bases and his memoirs, he wrote: “The result of exactly as in 1956. interests in a former colony, two my phone calls was the establish- NATO members, Greece and Turkey, ment of the UN force...I telephoned resident Lyndon Johnson, worried were on the verge of war over the a rather surprised [UN Secretary P about NATO’s future if the Greeks island they both wanted to control. General] U Thant to tell him the and the Turks went to war, was grate- Prime Minister Pearson was initially good news.” The prime minister too ful. As Pearson recalled in his memoirs, dubious about sending Canadian must have been surprised at Martin’s LBJ “was amazed and filled with admi- troops — “Let them cut each other success, and Martin likely exaggerat- ration...and I think this may have up,” he told Paul Hellyer, his ed his own role, but Pearson did changed his attitude toward Defence Minister. “We certainly secure Parliament’s approval on Canada...‘You’ll never know what this won’t go in just to help the British.” March 13, 1964. Canada sent an may have prevented.’” The president A war would have had disastrous infantry battalion at once, and UNFI- then asked, “Now what can I do for effects on NATO’s southern flank, CYP, the United Nations Force in you?” Although Pearson replied “noth-

POLICY OPTIONS 69 MAY 2004 J.L. Granatstein PASSAGES ing at the moment,” I believe that and Israel went to war again, and the him become Liberal leader and, later, Johnson’s willingness to agree to the Egyptians expelled the Canadian Prime Minister? Not even the casualties Auto Pact the next year, an agreement peacekeeping troops just before fight- of UN service — 116 Canadian service- that hugely benefited Canada’s auto ing began. The brotherhood of man? men have been killed on United Nations sector, may well have been Pearson’s Or a political failure to seize the oppor- and other peacekeeping and peace reward for Cyprus. tunity provided by a peacekeeping enforcement duties since the first, For most of the Cold War, peace- freeze to settle a crisis? Brigadier H.H. Angle, on the India- keeping brought public huzzahs for the The hard realities of crisis resolution Pakistan border in 1950 — put a damper Canadian Forces but few military bene- never penetrated the mind of the on the idea. fits. The generals, air marshals, and Canadian public, yet the idealism of self- admirals saw UN service as a distrac- less service in the cause of peace made n the decade after Pearson’s Nobel tion from their main task of preparing Canadians proud of their lead role in I Prize, as the Cold War continued to defeat Soviet tank armies on the cen- peacekeeping. Their politicians also and as the United States got itself tral German plain, defending North enjoyed the accolades received at the UN embroiled in the morass of the America from nuclear-armed long- Headquarters in New York, the clout and Vietnam War, the Canadian public range Russian bombers, and fighting prestige Canada thought it won with the began to believe that peacekeeping Soviet submarines in the North international bureaucracy and in foreign was its métier. We were the world’s Atlantic. Though peacekeeping never offices in return for its soldiers. Liberal master peacekeepers, the indispensable employed more than a few United Nations’ players. The thousand men and was not a In the decade after Pearson’s Nobel Americans, always bumptious high military priority, it used up Prize, as the Cold War continued and too aggressive, fought scarce military resources of and as the United States got itself wars, but Canadians, nature’s bilingual army signallers or neutral middlemen, kept the pilots of small aircraft, for embroiled in the morass of the peace. This idea became a example, and interfered with Vietnam War, the Canadian public mantra, a powerful one that the training of the army, navy, began to believe that peacekeeping successive governments never and air force for war — or so the was its métier. We were the world’s challenged. War was foreign to generals said. Moreover, to Canadian thinking, but peace- many senior officers, peace- master peacekeepers, the keeping was the natural role for keeping fostered a naïve atti- indispensable United Nations’ us to play. With the attentive tude among both their men players. The Americans, always public, peacekeeping was do- and the Canadian public alike: bumptious and too aggressive, goodism writ large. It was also a that, by simply donning a blue military role that differentiated beret, Canadian soldiers could fought wars, but Canadians, nature’s us from the Americans, a huge bring peace where only war or neutral middlemen, kept the peace. boost for Canadian national- civil war had prevailed. ism. And if some worried that and Tory governments alike rushed to Canadians weren’t pulling their mili- nother Canadian, an Army volunteer the Canadian military for tary weight in the Cold War, there was A Service Corps captain serving in every peacekeeping operation, and for a one easy answer: the nation’s peace- UNEF and based in Gaza and Port Said, time Canada and Canadians proudly keeping did not require huge armies, wrote to me that “the Canadian boasted that their nation had been a par- large fleets, and vast air forces. Only appears to be the world’s most provin- ticipant in every UN mission — and blue berets and a few blue helmets cial animal” when compared to even in non-UN missions, especially the were needed to do good and make a Swedes, Danes, or Indians, with International Control Commissions in contribution. “closed minds, complete ignorance the former French Indochina after 1954. In truth, the Cold War meant that [and no] desire to learn or accept Foreign ministers began to hope that, if the Americans and the Russians could another’s point of view...” Yet this they called in their markers in the world exercise a form of control over their same officer, after observing that capitals and at UN headquarters in New friends and client states. Neither want- “boredom is a place much like Port York, they too might create a peacekeep- ed ethnic groups to begin to slaughter Said,” added hopefully that, at UNEF’s ing force and help freeze a crisis. If they each other and provoke intervention. Gaza headquarters, “it’s quite a sight could then get the prime minister to “Behave yourself and do what Moscow on Sunday nights to see saris, turbans, agree to send Canadian troops, a Nobel or Washington tell you,” or so the mes- business suits, fezes, etc. A very good Peace Prize might come their way too. sage seemed to be. Peacekeeping mis- feeling. The brotherhood of man is a After all, it had worked for Lester sions were relatively few, and most possibility.” In 1967, however, Egypt Pearson, hadn’t it? Didn’t the prize help required only a small number of troops.

70 OPTIONS POLITIQUES MAI 2004 Fatal distraction: Lester Pearson and the unwarranted primacy of peacekeeping BOOK EXCERPT anadians loved the idea, though NATO began to pick up the hard chal- weapons in their kitbags than the C President Nasser’s expulsion of lenges. Peacekeeping had turned into United Nations had decreed. To cite our troops from Egypt in 1967 put a a combination of peace enforcement another even more horrific example, damper on public enthusiasm for and peacemaking, and it soon became the UN’s “old boys’ club” of incompe- some time. So did the Trudeau govern- just another synonym for war. tent officials, along with its inability ment’s rejection of a “helpful fixer” to reinforce its tiny peacekeeping role for Canada at the beginning of the hat made the situation worse force in Rwanda, left the Canadian 1970s. Still, UN demands for peace- W for everyone was the utter force commander, Major-General keepers continued to be made on incompetence of the United Nations Roméo Dallaire, unable to prevent a , as few other nations had the in running peacekeeping missions. monstrous genocide. Canadian combination of military skills and The UN was an organization of nations Major-General Maurice Baril, the mil- resources that Canada did. By tacit with conflicting interests; it also had itary adviser to both the UN’s agreement, neither the Russians nor an inefficient bureaucracy (highly paid Secretary General and the UN’s peace- the Americans sent their soldiers on and tax-free though it was) both at its keeping head, then , tried UN missions. The British and the headquarters in New York and around his best to help his friend Dallaire, French had colonial pasts that often the world. Simply put, the UN’s but to no avail. The United Nations made them unwelcome in Africa and Security Council, General Assembly, had proven to be a weak reed, espe- Asia, where most UN missions were and myriad committees did not work. cially when it confronted the peace needed. Canada became the indispen- The United States thought it ought to and security issues it was created to sable nation — or so we thought. run the organization, the Russians address. If the Security Council’s veto- What changed peacekeeping was sulked, and the British and especially wielding members didn’t care about the end of the Cold War in a few short the French played their age-old games an issue, nothing would happen. In years from 1989 to 1991. The collapse of cynical and self-interested diploma- Rwanda, the French and Americans of the Soviet Union lifted Moscow’s cy. The Arab states hated the Israelis. didn’t, and hundreds of thousands dead hand from Eastern Europe, Developing countries schemed how died as a result. unleashing nationalisms galore. The best to squeeze conscience money African and Asian states that had from the rich states. The United anada was not alone in recogniz- been areas of contention between Nations couldn’t run an ice-cream C ing that other organizations had East and West now felt free to pursue stand, let alone operate peacekeeping to take over key peace support and their own agendas. Instead of peace, a and peace enforcement missions peace enforcement operations. When new world disorder erupted as ethnic around the world. the UN failed abysmally in the former tribes — Serbs and Croats, Hutu and Canadian military planners had Yugoslavia, NATO stepped in; when Tutsi, and dozens more — sought to learn to work around UN’s dys- Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic their revenge for historical slights. functional supply system and, for tried to crush the Kosovo Albanians, Peacekeeping initially seemed to boom, with What changed peacekeeping was the end of the Cold War in the United Nations dis- a few short years from 1989 to 1991. The collapse of the patching tens of thou- Soviet Union lifted Moscow’s dead hand from Eastern Europe, sands of troops and a score of forces around unleashing nationalisms galore. Instead of peace, a new world the globe in the early disorder erupted as ethnic tribes — Serbs and Croats, Hutu 1990s. But a UN shoul- and Tutsi, and dozens more — sought their revenge for der flash and a white- historical slights. painted Jeep no longer seemed enough to maintain peace, as example, the organization’s ceilings NATO fought and won a totally justifi- people fought to kill their tribe’s on equipment when the situation on able and necessary “humanitarian war” ancient enemies. There was a genoci- the ground in Bosnia exposed to stop a genocide in the making. In dal war in the former Yugoslavia, and Canadian troops to danger. The UN Afghanistan, after coalition military UN forces there, including Canadians, issued orders to bring only light operations against al-Qaeda and the fought large-scale battles, often weapons and to restrict the number of Taliban regime, an International unavailing, to try to stop the mas- armoured vehicles, but Canadian gen- Security Assistance Force took the field, sacres. The United Nations buckled erals sensibly decided that more a de facto NATO operation, although under the strain, its organization and robust means of self-defence were one authorized by the United Nations. finances insufficient to handle the necessary. The Canadians came to the It was clear that peace enforcement, task, and informal coalitions and former Yugoslavia with more the toughest kind of peacekeeping per-

POLICY OPTIONS 71 MAY 2004 J.L. Granatstein PASSAGES mitted under Article VII of the UN many soldiers eagerly sought UN serv- commemorates not those who fought Charter, worked best outside the UN, ice as a way of supplementing their in Korea or those hundreds of thou- with a coalition of nations operating income. In effect, Canadian soldiers sands who served in NATO and helped under a Security Council green light. were selling themselves for UN dollars. win the Cold War, but those Canadian UN peacekeeping soon became limited Above all, there is the pernicious servicemen and women who served in to the low end of the violence scale, to “feel good” effect of peacekeeping. peacekeeping operations. “Reconcilia- freezing a situation and to giving the For fifty-six years, ever since 1948, the tion,” the monument demands. Peace- parties to a conflict a breathing space. United Nations has had military keeping and peacekeepers deserve to be The United Nations couldn’t — and observers in Kashmir. Despite the honoured, but it is even more striking shouldn’t — do everything. organization’s best efforts, India and what Canada’s governments chose not The United Nations always pre- Pakistan have fought two wars over to recognize. tended that all national armies were that disputed region and now, as both Much like peacekeeping, the United Nations has been Canada was not alone in recognizing that other organizations and continues to remain had to take over key peace support and peace enforcement popular with Canadians. operations. When the UN failed abysmally in the former With their instinctive pref- erence for multilateralist Yugoslavia, NATO stepped in; when Yugoslav President organizations that give Slobodan Milosevic tried to crush the Kosovo Albanians, Ottawa a place to shelter NATO fought and won a totally justifiable and necessary itself away from the relent- “humanitarian war” to stop a genocide in the making. less pressure of the bilateral Canada–US relationship, we equal in their capabilities, so New York countries possess nuclear arms, they rely on the UN in spite of all the evi- frequently took the troops that were on are as close to war as they have been dence of its complete ineffectiveness to offer at any given moment, whether in the last two decades. For thirty the contrary. The UN doesn’t work, the they were properly trained or equipped years Canadians served in Cyprus, critics say. Well, it should, Canadians for the mission. What else could it do? patrolling the Green Line separating respond. Unfortunately, it doesn’t Some national contingents proved Greek and Turkish Cypriots, yet not work, and there is no sign at all that absolutely incapable of operating well; until the Mulroney government the UN can be fixed. Canadians cannot others collapsed the moment they were announced it was pulling its troops pin their hopes for a better world on a fired on. Some devoted themselves to out of the UN Force in Cyprus did the flawed, crippled world body. operating on the black market; others parties really begin to talk, though to Canadians tend to blush, stammer, preyed on local civilians; and some, no avail. Some Canadians served in and scrape their feet in the dirt in their troopers riddled with AIDS, Cyprus for six, seven, or eight 6- embarrassment when they talk about spread disease everywhere they went. month tours of duty, and a few were subjects like democracy and freedom, That the demoralized, dysfunctional, reputed to have second families living but those ideals have been and remain incompetent UN forces were able to in Nicosia. The Canadian Airborne very important. This nation has never perform at all in a few operations was a Regiment fought a major battle gone to war for aggressive reasons — we near-miracle. against invading Turkish troops in are one of the few countries anywhere 1974 and sustained — and inflicted — that can say that — but only to defend ompounding matters, the United casualties in this fight with a NATO our own soil or to fight with our friends C Nations pays countries US$1,000 ally at the Nicosia airport. and stand up for concepts like democ- per soldier per month to provide racy, freedom, and justice. It is our his- troops for peace support operations. espite all these difficulties, the toric willingness to take up arms for just This income likely explains why D Canadian people love peacekeep- causes, far more than our interest in Bangladesh, for example, in May 2003 ing. When UN peacekeepers were and support for peacekeeping (impor- had 2,625 soldiers on UN duties; awarded the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize, tant as that concept is), that has helped Senegal, 523; and Nigeria, 2,548. many Canadians truly believed the to make Canada the country it is. Unlike these countries, which use their award was intended above all for their troops to bolster their hard currency soldiers. Perhaps it is not surprising that earson knew that fact well. He had holdings, the Canadian Forces, which the only national military monument P served overseas in an army medical in May 2003 had 219 soldiers on UN erected in the nation’s capital since the unit and as a pilot trainee in the Great duty, allowed its soldiers to keep the Second World War, its figures standing War, worked as a diplomat in London UN’s monthly shilling. Because the on a concrete island in front of the glass and Washington in the Second World military’s pay was so low for so long, walls of the National Gallery of Canada, War, and been External Affairs minister

72 OPTIONS POLITIQUES MAI 2004 Fatal distraction: Lester Pearson and the unwarranted primacy of peacekeeping BOOK EXCERPT during the . He appreciated levels of icons and myth — Canada as soldier, however, cannot fight in a the role that the UN could play, but he the universally beloved, tolerant, and war—at least, not without dying quick- was also one of the founders of NATO, idealistic peacekeeping exemplar to the ly. The country’s best-known soldier, and he was never a believer in peace- world. Being Canadians, however, they Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, keeping above all other means of state- understand nothing of how dangerous argues similarly against making the craft. Peacekeeping was a tool, a device and difficult peacekeeping and peace- Canadian Forces into peacekeepers to freeze a crisis while statesmen sought making have become in the last decade. alone. “There will come a day when the a political solution to resolve it. Pearson Nor do they seem to realize that Canada government turns to the military and soon realized that the United Nations in 2003 has just over two hundred sol- says: ‘Okay, we need you to fight and could not broker a peace in the Middle diers on UN duties. Given their chronic kill people,’” but then, he warns, “the East, nor could it prevent future wars lack of interest in the military, they do military will raise its hand and say: among Israel, Egypt, and the other Arab not know that the present Canadian ‘Sorry, we don’t do that any more.’” states. Suez in 1956 was a Canadian and Forces, with well under 55,000 trained Pearsonian triumph, something that soldiers, sailors, and airmen and earson’s success in resolving the could scarcely be replicated so long as women, are incapable of doing more P Suez Crisis created the myth that the Cold War went on. Other peace- for the UN because they are so thinly Canada was the impartial, indispensa- keeping operations followed it in the stretched and ill-equipped. Yet being ble, and universally loved nation. It Congo, Cyprus, and other trouble Canadian, they accept the contradicto- wasn’t true in 1956 and it’s not true spots, but the record of successful reso- ry idea that the Canadian Forces remain now, but Canadians and their govern- lution of crises by the UN was ments fell prey to this idea. The slim to non-existent. Shrewd, Pearson’s 1956 triumph was result was super-simplistic rea- clever, and a life-long student of misinterpreted by his fellow citizens, soning that failed to assess the international affairs, Pearson as they fell in love with the United realities of the world, substitut- knew what he had achieved, ing peacekeeping for rational realized it meant little, ultimate- Nations and peacekeeping and thought. And peacekeeping ly, unless it translated into a continue today to raise their blue- came to have a devastating durable peace, and understood helmeted soldiers to the levels of effect on the Canadian military. that the interposition of a UN icons and myth — Canada as the “Soft power,” Foreign Minister force between belligerents was Lloyd Axworthy called it, but a not the universal panacea. universally beloved, tolerant, and flaccid military was more like it. idealistic peacekeeping exemplar to Pearson did no wrong — earson also understood that it the world. Being Canadians, indeed, he did his job as External P was important to have however, they understand nothing Affairs minister so well in 1956 Parliament approve the commit- that he deserved every one of the ment of forces to United Nations of how dangerous and difficult plaudits he received. There is a operations. He insisted on taking peacekeeping and peacemaking law of unintended conse- the Cyprus commitment to have become in the last decade. quences, nonetheless, and a Members of Parliament and, compliant public and the eager though the troops were already in the air, the world’s ideal peacekeepers, indis- politicians they elect have run the mili- he was willing to recall them if the House pensable to the United Nations. tary into the ground, all the while prat- voted no. That punctiliousness has slipped Canadians do not realize that the tling about peacekeeping as the most away, and Parliament is no longer asked as major reason the Canadian Forces have important role for the Canadian Forces. a matter of course to approve overseas proven themselves capable of peace- It wasn’t Mike Pearson who helped kill commitments. I think it should be, and it keeping is that the nation trains its the Canadian military; rather, the idea of would be useful if the House of Commons men and women for war. “There is no peacekeeping that his Nobel Peace Prize Standing Committee on National Defence such thing as a Canadian ‘peacekeep- made into Canada’s national mission is and Veterans Affairs, generally a knowl- er,’” according to military historian Dr. the culprit. edgeable committee, had to recommend Sean Maloney. “There are Canadian in favour of a commitment before the soldiers. Peacekeeping covers a small J.L. Granatstein is one of Canada’s question went to all MPs. band in the spectrum of conflict. most prolific historians, specializing in Pearson’s 1956 triumph was misin- Canadian national security demands military affairs and Canada-US rela- terpreted by his fellow citizens, as they that we have an armed force capable of tions. Who Killed the Canadian fell in love with the United Nations and fighting.” It is a truism that a war- Military? is his 61st book and is peacekeeping and continue today to trained soldier can fight and also do excerpted by permission of Harper raise their blue-helmeted soldiers to the peacekeeping. A peacekeeping-trained Flamingo Canada.

POLICY OPTIONS 73 MAY 2004