mn u Ottawa L'Uiiiversile cnnadienne Canada's university mn FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES l^s FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES u Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Universite canadienne Canada's university Asa McKercher AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS M.A. History GRADE/DEGREE Department of History FACULTE, ECOLE, DEPARTEMENT/ FACULTY, SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT 'Not Easy, Smooth or Automatic": Canada-Us Relation, Canadian Nationalism and American Foreign Policy. 1961-1963 TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Galen Perras DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE/THESIS EXAMINERS Serge Durflinger Jeffrey Keshen Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies "Not easy, smooth, or automatic": Canada-US relations, Canadian Nationalism, and American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963 Asa McKercher A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in History Universite d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 2009 ©Asa McKercher, Ottawa, Canada, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-61316-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-61316-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondares ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada Abstract An historical consensus has coalesced around the view that Canadian-American relations reached a nadir from 1961-1963. The argument is that due to differences of both personality and policy John Diefenbaker, Canada's Prime Minister, and US President John Kennedy loathed each other. Scholars have subsequently debated over who was more to blame for this, but their analyses have been incomplete because the American side has largely been ignored. As most, if not all, of the historians who have examined the Diefenbaker-Kennedy era have been Canadian, American archival sources have been used sparingly. Drawing upon the rich documentary collection in the US National Archives and the Kennedy Presidential Library, this thesis argues, in contrast to what many have contended, that US foreign policy was in fact quite complimentary towards Diefenbaker's government. This was primarily because American policy-makers were aware of the potent force of Canadian nationalism, which their experiences with Diefenbaker only confirmed. Acknowledgements First I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Kennedy Library Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which allowed me to travel to the United States to conduct research. As well, the expert help of Sharon Kelly and Stephen Plotkin at the Kennedy Library and Julie Roy at Library and Archives Canada was irreplaceable. I would be remiss if I did not thank Dr. Serge Durflinger for never failing to write me reference letters on short notice. Also, my interest in Canadian diplomatic history was spurred by Professor Durflinger throughout many an undergrad course. To Dr. Galen Perms I owe the greatest of debts, both professionally and personally. In never failing to both challenge my ideas and to encourage me on, Professor Perras proved to be the best thesis supervisor a student could want. His advice and guidance to me, throughout my undergraduate and graduate years and as a TA, was valued and appreciated. On a more personal note, Natalie Ratcliffe was an excellent research partner, both in the archives and during the trips to College Park and Princeton when we debated American foreign policy and resolved to agree to disagree. Lisa Perrella and Jonathan Heggie have been two fantastic friends who throughout my writing process were supportive of me, although were not necessarily understanding when I took the position that I needed to write and not drink wine. Lastly, but most importantly, for their love and support I thank Cheryl, and Brian and Cathie. Thank you. Contents Introduction - "Not easy, smooth, or automatic": Canada-US relations, Canadian Nationalism, and American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963. p. 1 Chapter One - "Canada and the United States have carefully maintained the good fences that help make them good neighbours ": From Eisenhower to Kennedy. p. 16 Chapter Two - "Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.": Meeting the Neighbours. p. 33 Chapter Three - "Whatever originates in the United States must be viewed with a cold eye": Nuclear Weapons and Economic Relations. p. 70 Chapter Four - "Diefenbaker 's relation with the President is not likely ever to be the same": Policies and Personalities. p. 101 Chapter Five- "Complicated and far-reaching": Canada-US Relations and Cuba, 1962. p. 116 Chapter Six -"We didn't know how big a bomb we were setting off" - The US and the Collapse of Diefenbaker's Government p. 156 Conclusions p. 189 Bibliography p. 194 Introduction - "Not easy, smooth, or automatic": Canada-US relations, Canadian Nationalism, and American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963 Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker once referred to US President John F. Kennedy as '"a boastful son of a bitch'"; Kennedy thought Diefenbaker was '"a prick'".1 That these two men, whose time in office overlapped from January 1961 to April 1963, disliked each other is no great secret. Indeed, two historians have dubbed it a "Canadian cliche" to contrast "the confident, cosmopolitan, Harvard graduate who was president with the insecure, teetotaling, small-town Saskatchewan lawyer who was prime minister."2 It is no doubt also a truism that during the Kennedy-Diefenbaker years the relationship between the United States and Canada reached its lowest point in the twentieth century. The 1963 Canadian federal election was marked by charges both that the US had interfered in Canada's domestic affairs and that Diefenbaker's government was guilty of dangerous inaction which had weakened its alliance with the United States. Events over the years 1961-1963 - from the Cuban missile crisis, to Britain's choice to join the European Common Market, to Canada's indecision on whether to acquire defensive nuclear weapons - worried people on both sides of the border. As such, differences of both policy and personality divided Canada and the United States. Historians have generally put the blame for this state of affairs on either Diefenbaker, Kennedy, or on both leaders. Those faulting the Canadian Prime Minister have charged that his Canadian nationalist populism and chronic procrastination had a damaging effect on Canada-US relations. The American President, meanwhile, has been credited with ignoring legitimate Canadian concerns about US policy, a result of his arrogant and imperious nature. More 1 John Diefenbaker quoted in Knowlton Nash, Kennedy and Diefenbaker: Fear and Loathing Across the Undefended Border (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990), p. 11. John F. Kennedy quoted in Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 (Boston: Back Bay Books, 2003), p. 389. 2 John Herd Thompson and Stephen J. Randall, Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies, Third Edition (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002), p. 215. 1 convincingly, scholars have faulted both Diefenbaker and Kennedy although most are more critical of one of these leaders rather than the other. In any case, the focus of the historiography has largely been on the two men themselves, with discussion of policy differences thrown in for good measure. This focus is not a surprise given that the President and Prime Minister were such dynamic and polarising figures. Also dominating the historiography of the Kennedy- Diefenbaker relationship and Canada-US relations during this period have been analyses by Canadians. Americans,