Learning to Love the Bomb: Canada's Nuclear Weapons During the Cold War

by Sean M. Maloney

In Learning to Love the Bomb , Sean M. Maloney explores the controversial subject of Canada’s acquisition of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Based on newly declassified Canadian and U.S. documents, it examines policy, strategy, operational, and technical matters and weaves these seemingly disparate elements into a compelling story that finally unlocks several Cold War mysteries. For example, while U.S. military forces during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis were focused on the Caribbean Sea and the southeastern United States, Canadian forces assumed responsibility for defending the northern United States, with aircraft armed with nuclear depth charges flying patrols and guarding against missile attack by Soviet submarines. This defensive strategy was a closely guarded secret because it conflicted with Canada’s image as a peacekeeper and therefore a more passive member of NATO than its ally to the south. It is revealed here for the first time. The place of nuclear weapons in Canadian history has, until now, been a highly secret and misunderstood field subject to rumor, rhetoric, half-truths, and propaganda. Learning to Love the Bomb reveals the truth about Canada’s role as a nuclear power.

498 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 29, 2007

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

By directly challenging the main thread of Canadian nuclear history, Dr. Maloney provides an important counterpoint to the majority of Canadian historians who paint Canada as a peaceful, anti-nuclear power. Instead, he points out that Canada deliberately went about obtaining nuclear weapons, that the Canadian public supported the idea, and Canada was by no means an irrelevant power during the Cold War, but was an integral part of the NATO alliance system.