Unlikely Diplomats: The Canadian Brigade in Germany, 1951–1964 by Isabel Campbell (review)

Isabel Campbell offers an important study of a transitional phase in Canada’s military and diplomatic history. The experience of the Canadian brigade in Germany between 1951 and 1964 provides a useful lens to examine the challenges faced by Canadian statesmen, soldiers, and their families in the uneasy decades following the Second World War. This study draws on documents recently discovered at the Directorate of History and Heritage as well as declassified archival records held by the National Archives of the United Kingdom. Using this new evidence, Campbell explores the delicate balancing act that was required to assert an independent Canadian foreign policy while working with international coalitions such as NATO and the British Commonwealth.

The book’s focus on the Canadian brigade in Germany provides an original insight into the perennial challenge faced by Canadian statesmen after the Second World War: how to affect a strategic impact in the international arena while only contributing a force of operational significance. Tracing the policies of successive prime ministers, from St. Laurent to Trudeau, Campbell presents the tensions generated as the Canadian brigade worked as part of the British Army of the Rhine, near Hannover. The eventual decision to relocate the brigade to the American sector, in southern Germany, is argued to have provided the brigade a significant measure of independence.

Campbell also situates the Canadian brigade within the larger debates regarding NATO’s strategic shift from conventional ground forces toward nuclear deterrence. The presence of the Canadian brigade in Germany ensured that Canada played a role, albeit a small one, in shaping these decisions. The shift to nuclear deterrence, however, meant that conventional forces, such as the Canadian brigade, were unlikely to play a decisive role in a potential conflict with the Soviet Union. As Campbell argues, this shift changed the brigade’s primary role from a deterrent against Soviet invasion to an instrument through which Canada could influence the rapprochement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Western powers through civil-military relations.

The Canadian brigade fostered this rapprochement between Germany and the West through the everyday interactions between the soldiers of the brigade, their families, and local German residents. This was achieved by encouraging Canadian soldiers to relocate their families to Germany and promoting their living standards to demonstrate the benefits of a Western lifestyle. The reliance on official documents, however, provides only a limited insight into the daily lives of Canadian soldiers and their families while living in Germany. Their quality of life and the state of civil-military relations are illuminated through proscriptive literature, such as housing regulations, training manuals, and pamphlets meant to familiarize Canadian soldiers with German culture, or official programs such as sports leagues and Christmas exchanges between soldiers and German civilians. The impact of these policies and programs on troop morale or on their relationship with the local population is often measured in statistics relating to disciplinary offences or venereal disease. A few examples are drawn from German newspapers and oral histories, but the focus remains on the actions of the Canadian civil and military leadership as they enacted policies to raise the material comfort of soldiers and their families. These policies allowed Canadians to both enjoy and demonstrate a Western standard of living while posted to Germany. The domestic stability produced by these policies also promoted the retention of older and experienced soldiers in Canada’s volunteer armed forces.

Campbell’s focus on the experiences of the Canadian brigade skilfully weaves a number of themes together to shed new light on the evolution of Canada’s postwar military and international relations. By exploring the trials and tribulations of maintaining a brigade as part of an international coalition at the dawn of the nuclear arms race, Campbell provides a compelling study of the evolution of the Canadian army during the turbulent years of the early Cold War.