Canada and the World
Cuba, The UN, Human Rights, The Korean War, Canada and the Commonwealth, The Vietnam War
Chapter 11.4
Cuban Missile Crisis Crisis began on October 22nd, 1962 Pres. Kennedy learned that the Soviet Union
was building missile sites in Cuba Kennedy demanded that the Soviet ships turn
around The Soviets refused to turn around The world thought that nuclear war was
imminent Kennedy asked Diefenbaker to put the
Canadian military on high alert Diefenbaker thought that this would only
heighten the tensions with the Soviet Union
Canada and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (John
Humphrey, a McGill University professor was one of the main authors of the Declaration)
General Assembly the main deliberative body of the UN – all 192
nation-states have representatives in this body The Security Council
mandated to maintain peace and security 5 permanent members – USA, Rusia, Britain,
France, China ▪ each have veto power over Security Council decisions
Flag of the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights John Humphrey, a McGill University
professor was one of the main authors of the Declaration
Heritage Minute on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
States that all people of the world ought to have basic civil, economic, social and political rights
The Commonwealth Since the Statue of Westminster in
1931, the Commonwealth (a group of independent nations) had replaced the Empire
In the 1950s and 60s many former colonies became independent and joined the Commonwealth e.g. India became independent from Britain
in 1947 under the leadership of Ghandi and then joined the Commonwealth
The Commonwealth Games
Canada and the U.S.A.
Canada was becoming very close economically with the U.S.
Canada was militarily close with the U.S. (NORAD, NATO, etc.)
Canada fought along side the U.S. in the 1950’s Korean War (p278) but was not close with the U.S. on the issue of the Vietnam War (1960’s-70’s)
The Korean War
On June 25th, 1950 communist N. Korea invaded and defeated non-communist S. Korea
The UN Security Council agreed to send UN forces to push the N. Koreans out of S. Korea
Canada participated in the war, alongw ith the U.S. and other Western nations, by contributing 27,000 military personnel
An armistice was reached on July 27th, 1953
The Vietnam War
Canada did not support the Vietnam War (U.S. and South Vietnamese against the North Vietnamese PM Pearson criticized the American war we allowed “draft dodgers” to immigrate to
Canada Much like the Korean War, the North
Vietnamese (Viet Cong) were Communist and were supported by China and Russia The U.S. wanted to support the people and
politics in South Vietnam
Tunnels in the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War Over 58,000 American soldiers have
their names on the Vietnam War memorial in Washington D.C.
The North Vietnamese army won the war Americans were forced to flee Saigon
(capital of the South, now known as Ho Chi Minh City)
Many Canadians (over 30,000) fought voluntarily in the Vietnam war (not with the Canadian government)
Vietnam War Memorial, Washington