In 1958 Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts proclaimed at the University of New Brunswick that "Canada and the United States have carefully maintained the good fences that help make them good neighbours." He could not have foreseen that his presidency would be marked not just by some of the tensest moments of the Cold War but also by the most contentious moments in the Canadian-American relationship. Indeed, the 1963 Canadian federal election was marked by charges that the US government had engineered a plot to oust John Diefenbaker, Canada's nationalist prime minister. Camelot and Canada explores political, economic, and military elements in Canada-US relations in the early 1960s. Asa McKercher challenges the prevailing view that US foreign policymakers, including President Kennedy, were imperious in their conduct toward Canada. Rather, he shows that the period continued to be marked by the special diplomatic relationship that characterized the early postwar years. Even as Diefenbaker's government pursued distinct foreign and economic policies, American officials acknowledged that Canadian objectives legitimately differed from their own and adjusted their policies accordingly. Moreover, for all its bluster, Ottawa rarely moved without weighing the impact that its initiatives might have on Washington. At the same time, McKercher illustrates that there were significant strains on the bilateral relationship, which occurred as a result of mounting doubts in Canada about US leadership in the Cold War, growing Canadian nationalism, and Canadian concern over their country's close economic, military, and cultural ties with the United States. While personal clashes between the two leaders have become mythologized by historians and the public alike, the special relationship between their governments continued to function.

Camelot and Canada: Canadian-American Relations in the Kennedy Era

History

McKercher, Asa

Americas

Oxford University Press

Canada First, Not Canada Alone: A History of Canadian Foreign Policy

Chapnick, Adam

Building a Special Relationship offers thoughtful insight into Canadian and American foreign relations during the 1950s, when Canada and the United States found new diplomatic footing as allies in the shadow of the Cold War. This book shows how the Eisenhower years were crucial in forming the bilateral relationship that currently exists between Canada and the United States. Under President Eisenhower and Prime Ministers St. Laurent and Diefenbaker, policy makers on both sides of the border collaborated with an air of "tolerant accommodation" on significant issues of the day. Despite frequent differences, they established frameworks for defence, foreign policy, economic growth, and resource management, many of which endure today. For scholars and readers of political history, international relations, and diplomacy, Building a Special Relationship makes a compelling case that the Eisenhower era is key to understanding the ongoing bond between these two nations.

Building a Special Relationship: Canada-US Relations in the Eisenhower Era, 1953–61 (The C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political History)

Stevenson, Michael D.

University of British Columbia Press

Canada and the World since 1867 (New Approaches to International History)

This book is a history of Canada's role in the world as well as the impact of world events on Canada. Starting from the country's quasi-independence from Britain in 1867, its analysis moves through events in Canadian and global history to the present day. Looking at Canada's international relations from the perspective of elite actors and normal people alike, this study draws on original research and the latest work on Canadian international and transnational history to examine Canadians' involvement with a diverse mix of issues, from trade and aid, to war and peace, to human rights and migration. 
The book traces four inter-connected themes: independence and growing estrangement from Britain; the longstanding and ongoing tensions created by ever-closer relations with the United States; the huge movement of people from around the world into Canada; and the often overlooked but significant range of Canadian contacts with the non-Western world. With an emphasis on the reciprocal nature of Canada's involvement in world affairs, ultimately it is the first work to blend international and transnational approaches to the history of Canadian international relations.

Bloomsbury Academic

This book is a history of Canada's role in the world as well as the impact of world events on Canada. Starting from the country's quasi-independence from Britain in 1867, its analysis moves through events in Canadian and global history to the present day. Looking at Canada's international relations from the perspective of elite actors and normal people alike, this study draws on original research and the latest work on Canadian international and transnational history to examine Canadians' involvement with a diverse mix of issues, from trade and aid, to war and peace, to human rights and migration. The book traces four inter-connected themes: independence and growing estrangement from Britain; the longstanding and ongoing tensions created by ever-closer relations with the United States; the huge movement of people from around the world into Canada; and the often overlooked but significant range of Canadian contacts with the non-Western world. With an emphasis on the reciprocal nature of Canada's involvement in world affairs, ultimately it is the first work to blend international and transnational approaches to the history of Canadian international relations.

Entangled Terrains and Identities in Cuba: Memories of Guantánamo explores the challenges and conflicts of life in the transnational spaces between Cuba and the United States by examining the lived experiences of Alberto Jones, a first-generation black Cuban who worked at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay. Asa McKercher and Catherine Krull take readers on a journey through Jones’s life as he crossed the entangled political, racial, cultural, and economic boundaries, both in Cuba and living as a black Cuban in central Florida. McKercher and Krull argue that Jones’s story encapsulates the reality of recent Caribbean and Cuban experiences as they deconstruct the events of his life to reveal the broader cultural and social implications of identity, boundaries, and belonging throughout Caribbean and Cuban history.

Entangled Terrains and Identities in Cuba: Memories of Guantánamo (Lexington Studies on Cuba)

Krull, Catherine

Lexington Books

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Books by McKercher, Asa

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McKercher, Asa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Camelot and Canada: Canadian-American Relations in the Kennedy Era

Canada First, Not Canada Alone: A History of Canadian Foreign Policy

Building a Special Relationship: Canada-US Relations in the Eisenhower Era, 1953–61 (The C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political History)

Canada and the World since 1867 (New Approaches to International History)

Canada and the World since 1867 (New Approaches to International History)

Entangled Terrains and Identities in Cuba: Memories of Guantánamo (Lexington Studies on Cuba)