None the WISER: Building an Air Alert Policy for Nuclear Overflights
Between 1950 and 1959, the Canadian government regularly gave clearance for Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombers carrying nuclear components and weapons to overfly Canada for various transport purposes and military exercises. However, in 1959, the SAC and United States Air Force (USAF) sought to begin the Air Alert programme, an exercise designed to keep part of the US nuclear arsenal in the air at all times in the event of a Soviet attack on ground bases. Approving the logistics of these flights on a case-by-case basis would have overwhelmed the existing WISER system and the government; it was clear that a new policy was required.
The documents in this briefing book illustrate the diplomatic process of designing a bilateral policy to allow these flights to proceed. The importance of the Air Alert programme for deterrence and its many risks while overflying Canadian territory shows some of the most intricate difficulties of creating a mutually beneficial military agreement during some of the tensest years of the Cold War.