The relations between Canada and the USA in 1957–1963. Stages and the history of development

The article discusses the relationship between Canada and the USA during Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s premiership in 1957–1963. Based on the analysis of the relevant source and historiographical background, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that personal hostility and mutual misunderstanding between John Kennedy and John Diefenbaker shaped the nature of the relationship between Canada and the USA in 1961–1963. The author believes that Diefenbaker’s anti-Americanism in 1961–1963 did not have a clear ideological background, and was the result of a number of factors, and, above all, the populism of the Prime Minister of Canada, as well as his poor personal relations with John Kennedy. On the contrary, according to the author, in the 1957–1960 period, anti-Americanism was missing in the foreign policy strategy of Diefenbaker, and that is why the latter advocated a close military cooperation with the United States, which was implemented in 1958 through the conclusion of the NORAD agreement. From the author’s point of view, the relations between Canada and the USA in 1957–1963 underwent a serious transformation – from the consensus with Eisenhower to the complete lack of understanding with Kennedy. The latter failed to find a necessary approach to Diefenbaker who, guided by negative emotions towards Kennedy during the Caribbean crisis, did nothing to fulfill his allied obligations with regard to the United States. The author emphasizes that both sides are to blame for the deterioration of the relations between Canada and the USA in 1961–1963.

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