Lester Pearson and the Myth of Canada as Peaceable Kingdom (Part 2)

 

In 1967, Pearson used 1,500 uniformed Ukrainian youth as a backdrop to decry
de Gaulle’s “Vive le Québec libre” speech

Pearson was central to the constitutional coup that propelled him into power by orchestrating the toppling of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (1957-1963).

John F. Kennedy had no love for Canada’s Progressive Conservative leader. “My brother really hated only two men in all his presidency,” said Robert Kennedy. “One was Sukarno [Indonesia’s left-wing president] and the other was Diefenbaker.” The central focus of JFK’s hatred for Diefenbaker was his defiant refusal to allow the U.S. to arm Canadian missiles with American nuclear warheads.

Diefenbaker’s demise was orchestrated by a bevy of highly skilled experts in covert action from the CIA, State Department, White House and Pentagon, plus two successive U.S. ambassadors to Canada, America’s leading pollster (aided by the world’s best computer technology), and the U.S. Air Force general who then led NATO.

McGeorge Bundy, then Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, even bragged that acting U.S. Secretary of State “George Ball and I knocked over the Diefenbaker government….”

As usual, these American coup artists relied on local compradors to aid their efforts in replacing an uncooperative ally.  (more...)

Lester Pearson and the Myth of Canada as Peaceable Kingdom (Part 2)

Related:

Lester Pearson and the Myth of Canada as Peaceable Kingdom (Part 1)