Cold War Comforts: Canadian Women, Child Safety, and Global Insecurity

Introduction

1 Introduction Vigilant would best describe Ottawa resident Goldie Josephy’s state of mind in the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout these decades Josephy could be regularly found on Parliament Hill carrying a nuclear disarmament picket sign, holding a memorial outside the American embassy on the anniversary of Hiroshima, and participating in a march advocating an end to the war in Vietnam. When not actively demonstrating for peace, Josephy, a married mother and recent Jewish immigrant from England, was glued to her typewriter, where she wrote letters almost daily to heads of state and newspapers, expressing her distaste for militarism, imperialistic foreign policy, and nuclear weapons. From the same typewriter she corresponded with her South Korean foster child, Myung Hi, whom she sponsored through the Unitarian Service Committee . Josephy’s house was often the site of meetings for peace groups and became the temporary home to several American youths dodging the draft. In between demonstrations and stuffing envelopes, Josephy made time for private reflection, attending the Quaker peace retreat on Grindstone Island with her husband and two sons. She also organized the Ottawa visits of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Linus Pauling and anti–Vietnam War crusader Dr. Benjamin Spock. Josephy’s vigilance caused one journalist to remark that it appeared she “worked 80 hours a week for 18 years without pay.”1 When asked to explain her drive, Josephy stated, “I had two beautiful children and decided if I wanted them to grow up with arms and legs attached we can’t have another war.”2 2 Introduction Josephy was one of thousands of Canadian women who mobilized to protect children’s health and safety during the nuclear arms race and outbreaks of war between the dropping of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima and the end of the Vietnam War. Technically Canada was at peace between 1945 and 1975; however, the economic, cultural, and political rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union meant it was a peace that demanded caution and preparation for war. The state of global security (or rather insecurity) was characterized by the existence, evolution, and stockpiling of nuclear weaponry, which, if deployed, promised to end life as it was known. Meanwhile dozens of violent conflicts erupted in Europe and Asia, drawing the attention of foreign allies eager to offer military assistance to protect their economic and political ventures. In this explosive climate, the Canadian government, in both its successive Liberal and Conservative forms, made several investments to keep the Cold War from getting hot, or, failing that, to ensure Canada emerged on the winning side. This meant Canada would continue the course the nation began in the Second World War and remain active in international affairs by helping its allies and monitoring the activities of its enemies. In the diplomatic arena, hope was pinned on the United Nations (UN) becoming the foremost peacemaker, and the Canadian government donated funds and leadership so the fledgling organization had the resources to avert war and build stability through relief, economic development, social justice, and later, peacekeeping. Meanwhile, militarization offered a more familiar solution. Canada helped form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) in 1958, devoting land, troops, and finances to build and maintain defensive perimeters. Throughout the Cold War, the federal government was preoccupied with balancing the nation’s security responsibilities with shifting commitments to internationalism, continentalism, multilateralism, and Canada’s own sovereignty. As a result, Canada continued to nurture close alliances with Britain and, more importantly, with the United States, with whom Canada aligned their foreign policy and national defence plans, at least until the mid-1960s. On the home front, with an eye to the worst-case scenario , the government implemented a civil defence program to educate its citizens on the rudimentary tools they could use to survive a nuclear war. A system of surveillance was put in place to monitor and persecute communists and other groups construed as threats to Canada’s domestic security.3 During this thirty-year period the traditional family unit, both in Canada and abroad, was deemed inadequate to survive Cold War threats without new resources and external support. In particular, children’s minds and Introduction 3 bodies were seen as vulnerable to an assortment of atomic-age dangers as varied as atmospheric radiation caused by weapons testing, communist ideology, and the possibility of a third world war fought...