An Analysis On The Joint Defense Between The United States And Canada During The Eisenhower Administration

The Joint Defense between the United States and Canada originated from the Ogdensburg Declaration and the Hyde Park Declaration during the second world war. In the early postwar period, America and Canada further developed a series of joint defense planning, including “Public Statement on Joint Defence”, and carried out some joint exercise, constructed arctic weather stations and Low-Frequency LORAN Stations in Canada’s arctic region. When the Korean War broke out, the two countries signed “Statement of Principles for Economic Cooperation” and Reciprocal Military Purchasing Arrangement, which marked a new development stage of bilateral national defense economic cooperation. All these laid a sound foundation for the further development of US-Canada joint defense during the Eisenhower administration.The Eisenhower Administration continued to seek cooperation with Canada on the issue of continental defense, of which North American Air Defense was seen as a top priority. Based on the importance of early warning, the two countries successively constructed three main radar defence lines, which respectively named “Pinetree Line”, “Mid-Canada Line” and “Distant Early Warning Line”. On the other hand, the two countries founded North American Air Defense Command(NORAD), by which their Air Defense resources were integrated to some extent. In the meantime, there were also some progresses in Loran station, Interception of unidentified aircraft, Semi-Automatic Ground Environment(SAGE), and ballistic missile defense. Although naval coordination was not the point of North American joint defense, the United States and Canada got some achievements on naval collaborative capability, equipment acquisition, anti-submarine sound search stations, and so on. With Defense Production Sharing, bilateral national defense economic cooperation became increasingly active and close. Because of Canadian hesitation, the extension of joint defense to the nuclear field made no substantive progress during the Eisenhower administration.During the Eisenhower Administration, the development process of the joint defense between the United States and Canada showed some obvious characteristics, including comprehensive(coordinating military cooperation with national defense economic cooperation), interdependency, asymmetry and volatility. Its impact was wide-ranging and complex, which had different influences on America, Canada, NATO allies, and the Soviet Union.