Tolerant Allies: Canada and the United States, 1963–1968 by Greg Donaghy (review)

humanities 367 university of toronto quarterly, volume 73, number 1, winter 2003/4 rary sense of radical alienation expresses itself in various forms of rage as represented in the Terminator films. Unfortunately, the three writers= essays are on the whole less illuminating. Brian Stableford=s discussion of his own novels provides insights into his rejection of the negative opinion most have of biotechnology. Lance Olsen describes the role of rock music in the development of science fiction in >Omniphage: Rock >n= Roll and Avant-Pop Science Fiction,= but makes some obvious points such as the influence of rock on the Beat writers. Gwyneth Jones=s >Kairos: The Enchanted Loom= is a discussion of her early novels in a somewhat B and characteristically B disjointed and opaque style. The essays often echo each other in their consistent opposition to generic and other boundaries B while otherwise valorizing difference B but nevertheless cover a nicely varied range of subjects in the field. On the whole, Edging into the Future is a truly valuable contribution to the growing critical literature about contemporary science fiction. (ALLAN WEISS) Greg Donaghy. Tolerant Allies: Canada and the United States, 1963B1968 McGill-Queen=s University Press. x, 235. $75.00 This book is an examination of Canadian-American governmental relations during the Pearson years. Greg Donaghy is a historian in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and Tolerant Allies is a revised version of his University of Waterloo PhD thesis. In this way the book is very much what one might expect: it is carefully argued, fully sourced, academic in tone, and thoroughly researched in the official government sources, especially in the Canadian documents in Ottawa. Donaghy takes as a starting point the well-known confrontation between Canadian prime minister Lester Pearson and American president Lyndon Johnson at Camp David in 1965 following a rather timid speech by Pearson calling on the United States to announce a temporary halt to bombing in North Vietnam. Johnson is loud, overbearing, and threatening as he berates Pearson; the Canadian is calmer, respectful, and trying to be helpful. This moment has become something of a symbol of the strain, mistrust, and hostility in Canadian-American relations during these years, with Pearson and Johnson personifying that relationship. Donaghy=s goal is to demonstrate that the Canadian-American relationship was much broader and far more complex than this oversimplified and incomplete picture, and his book sets out to set the record straight. The chapters unfold thematically, examining closely the negotiation of the Autopact, trade relations, tariff reductions and the GATT, CanadianAmerican financial relations and balance of payments problems, Vietnam and Asian policy generally, and relations in NORAD and NATO. Two >central themes= or questions, really, serve as a theoretical backdrop for the book. One, >should Canada agree to the further integration of the two North 368 letters in canada 2002 university of toronto quarterly, volume 73, number 1, winter 2003/4 American economies in exchange for the material benefits that greater access to the United States market would make possible?= Two, >In accepting American proposals for closer economic partnership, did Pearson=s government sacrifice Canada=s political independence?= Donaghy would answer >yes= to the first question and >no= to the second. Pearson=s government, he writes, >virtually redefined the parameters of postwar Canadian-American relations. The economic relationship was increasingly grounded in a shared recognition of the value of formalized structures for continental cooperation. These in turn were slowly uncoupled from political considerations. Rather than compromising Canada=s independence, Pearson=s pursuit of closer economic relations with the United States rescued Canada from the parochial influence of Walter Gordon and his nationalist allies.= In this way the book is also the story of Lester Pearson, to whom Donaghy gives most of the credit for this transformation in Canadian-American relations. Pearson had to deal not only with the Americans, who could be tough and demanding, but he also had to cope with divisions in his own government, steering a careful course among competing ministers, especially between the nationalist Walter Gordon and the ambitious Paul Martin. Donaghy painstakingly describes the various sets of negotiations over trade, finance, defence, magazines, the Mercantile Bank, and...