Introduction

INTRODUCTION (From "In Alliance," R. Hill)

 

World order is a critical issue on today's international agenda. Once again Canadian and other public figures and diplomats are facing a rapidly changing world and contemplating how best to manage it. They are watching the upheaval in the Soviet Union, trying to come to grips with major developments in the remainder of Europe, discussing modifications in Western defence arrangements, and considering greater reliance on the United Nations for the promotion of global stability. Many UN members sent military forces recently to the Persian Gulf to turn back Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait, and so participated in a major effort to uphold and strengthen the international system by firm resistance to aggression.

 

This is a time to consider what Canada and other UN members can now do to uphold world order and promote international peace and security. We need to take stock of Canada's position and standing in the world, and to reflect on the possibilities that lie before this country for influencing the march of events. Canada has a long-standing interest in international peace and security and well-established connections through such bodies as NATO and the United Nations. This country will surely want to play its full part in the important international endeavours that now lie ahead.

 

In doing so, we should not forget that Canada has been actively involved in the quest for world stability, peace and order for a good fifty years. The work on current international structures began in the thick of the Second World War in an exercise known as Post Hostilities Planning; and continued over the next few years as discussions focussed on a new United Nations system. Canada was a founding member and active supporter of the new global organization, and looked to it in the immediate Post- War period as the keystone of a new international security system.

 

The more ambitious hopes for the United Nations were soon disappointed owing to the rapidly growing rift between the Soviet Union and the Western world. This paralyzed the Security Council. The UN action in Korea in the early 1950s was an exception to the rule occasioned by Soviet withdrawal for a brief time from Security Council decision-making. Henceforth - until the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990-91 - United Nations military action in attempts to uphold order or contain regional disputes was largely focussed on the new device of peacekeeping. Canada has played a full role in that endeavour, serving with the great majority of UN and similar peacekeeping missions.

 

With the dissipation of the original hopes for the United Nations, Canada's attention turned to alternative arrangements. Together with the United States and several West European countries, Canada participated in the establishment, in the late- 1940s, of the North Atlantic Treaty and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Set up in 1949, this new system was designed to reassure Western Europe about its security; guarantee the defence of the North Atlantic area; reaffirm democratic ideals among the member states; and promote well-being and a sense of community.

 

The North Korean invasion of the South in June 1950, prompted fears that the Soviet Union and international Communism were becoming militantly expansionist. This not only triggered a collective military response in Korea; it also raised concerns about the security of other regions including Western Europe. Collective defence arrangements in Europe were accordingly strengthened, and over the next year a Canadian infantry brigade and twelve squadrons of aircraft were sent to Europe to join other allied forces there.

 

Since those early days, Canada has actively participated in the work of NATO, especially at the military and political levels. Canada has maintained forces in Germany, and also contributed other naval, land and air units to the defence of the North Atlantic and North America. This country has also played a very active role in the management of inter-allied relationships, and in the collective work of expanding diplomatic contacts with the East. In addition, in pursuit of its interest in Article 2 of the North Atlantic Treaty - which advocates enhanced co-operation among the members at the non-military level - Canada has played its full part in NATO's work on economic issues, environmental concerns, and scientific and technological exchanges.

 

This forty years of work in NATO constitutes a major Canadian contribution to international peace and security. It has promoted the stability and prosperity of Western Europe, and helped to bring about the political changes in Central and Eastern Europe which now promise an entirely new future of East-West co-operation.

 

At the same time, participating in NATO has been beneficial for Canada. It has assured Canada's own defence - across the Atlantic and also directly for our own territory - and it has provided Canada with a pole of inter-relationships which help this country to reaffirm its own distinctness. In NATO, Canada has maintained linkages with the West European countries which have helped to counter-balance, to some degree, its very close and intense relationship with the United States.

 

So when we look at the future of Atlantic affairs, East-West relations, and world order, we need to recall that there is already in existence this whole body of experience and knowledge built up over almost half a century. It is important to examine the record, as well as staring into the future.

 

We also need to recall that this history of Canadian involvement in NATO and NATO-related issues is, above all, a human enterprise. Canadian people pursued Canadian policies - hacked out collective positions with other allied diplomats in NATO Headquarters, negotiated with their Warsaw Pact counterparts, or flew planes off aircraft carriers in the mid-Atlantic. The story of Canada's contribution to NATO is a record of great endeavour by government ministers and many dedicated and hard-working public servants, diplomats, military officers and service personnel.

 

Little of this story is publicly known. Some public figures and a few former ambassadors write autobiographies or comments on their work, but the vast majority of public servants and military personnel do not. They do their work and then hand over to their successors, leaving no formal record even after half a lifetime of activity.

 

The present transcripts aim at capturing a small part of this experience. They set out the recollections and perceptions of more than a dozen Canadians about the major events in NATO's history, and about Canada's efforts in such related fields as defence policy, East-West relations, and the pursuit of world order.

 

The group are all former public servants, diplomats or senior military officers. They do not include former ministers, although there were plans to do so at one stage if the work had proceeded into a second round of interviews. A second round would also have included, hopefully, a senior air force officer, the current Ambassador to the North Atlantic Council, and additional senior officials involved in Canadian defence planning.

 

All who did participate had immensely rich and varied careers, including periods of NATO or NATO-related work where they played key roles in consultations on such issues as the modernization of intermediate-range nuclear weapons, the control of conventional armed forces in Europe, events in Poland, or defence spending in Canada.

 

The interviews were all conducted in the summer of 1987. They were done as a set of biographies, following each person's career from one location and issue to another, and focussing most heavily on the periods of NATO or NATO-related activity. The questions were carefully prepared in advance so that the discussions focused on critical issues as much as possible. However, the approach was not a rigid or dry one; the aim was to encourage spontaneous comment as well as careful reflection, and to bring out a true sense of affairs rather than a point-by-point debate over this or that particular document.

 

The transcripts are contained in the main body of this study, entitled: "The Record". They are divided into three parts, according to the main focus of each person's career in NATO and NATO-related affairs. Thus John Holmes, Escott Reid, George Ignatieff, Geoffrey Pearson, Robert Cameron and George Grande are grouped in Part I, because their main involvement in NATO and NATO- related affairs was with the establishment of the Treaty, the years in Paris, East-West relations, or arms control negotiations. Group II were all involved directly in Canada's defence effort; and Group III were all Canadian ambassadors to the North Atlantic Council (NATO) in Brussels.

 

However, this division into groups should not be taken too literally. People's careers overlapped from one phase of NATO activity to another, as they advanced through various stages and changed functions from one area of work to another. For example, James Taylor saw NATO from a range of perspectives - as a delegation member in Paris in the early-1960s, as a diplomat in Moscow, as Ambassador to the North Atlantic Council (NATO) in Brussels, and as Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs in Ottawa. The other participants all had similar, broad-ranging careers.

 

On a personal note, the interviews were at all times a great pleasure to conduct. The participants were invariably outward-looking and forthcoming, as devoted to a truthful recounting of the record as they had been earlier to the effective performance of their duties. They represent Canadian public policy at its best - committed, skillful and imaginative, and without stridency or an absorbtion with panaceas. These practitioners were never simplistic or hawkish - they were, instead, dedicated and thoughtful.

 

Two participants who stood out among their generation have passed away since the interviews took place. All who knew them regret profoundly the loss of John Holmes and George Ignatieff, two great Canadians who contributed so much to the reputation of this country and to the pursuit of stability, harmony and peace in the world. This study is one further way of remembering them.