In Peace Prepared

Innovation and Adaptation in Canada’s Cold War Army

By Andrew B. Godefroy
Categories: History, Canadian History, Political Science, Military History, Security, Peace & Conflict Studies
Series: Studies in Canadian Military History
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774827027, 292 pages, October 2014
Paperback : 9780774827034, 292 pages, April 2015
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774827041, 292 pages, October 2014
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780774827058, 292 pages, October 2014

Table of contents

Preface

Introduction

1 Soldiers as Innovators: The Evolution of Army Combat Development

2 Shadow over Victory: From Occupation to Cold War Army, 1945-50

3 Going East and West: Combat Development in the Hot and Cold Wars, 1950-54

4 Ensuring Destruction: Designing the Tactical Nuclear Army, 1954-58

5 Atomic War Games: Combat Development through Simulation, 1958-64

6 Towards a Flexible Response: Creating a Post-Atomic Mobile Command, 1963-68

Conclusion

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index

A definitive account of how Canada’s peacetime army prepared for nuclear war.

Description

The Allies claimed victory at the end of the Second World War, but the United States’ invention of the atomic bomb and its replication by the Soviet Union posed new dangers for all nations. This book examines what Canada’s Cold War Army did to prepare for nuclear war – and why and how it did it. Although the war never materialized, officers, scientists, engineers, and designers developed a collaborative and systematic approach to problem solving that not only transformed the organization of Canada’s army but also influenced how armies in the Western Alliance related to one another during the Cold War and beyond.

Reviews

… this is a book that matters, and it should be read widely.

- Galen Roger Perras, University of Ottawa

…by stressing the evolution of Canadian Army strategic thinking and institutional development as well as what the Canadian Army did to be successful on the new conventional-nuclear battlefield during the first two decades of the Cold War, In Peace Prepared is a major addition to Canadian historiography. Written in a clear and compelling style, this work will appeal to academics and professional military personnel who wish to learn how big and complex is the task to plan, establish, build and manage a modern professional army.

- Caroline D’Amours, Royal Military College of Canada