‘The most serious problem’? Canada–US relations and Cuba, 1962

Abstract

Relying on newly opened documents from Canada and the United States this article examines Washington's effort, from January to October 1962, to internationalise the embargo of Cuba and explores the Canadian response. It argues that the Canadian government sought to support American policy while still maintaining its independent course of action. Although officials in Ottawa did not feel the need to abandon their position, they did come to appreciate that Canada's connections to Cuba were having an adverse impact on their country's vital relationship with the United States.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Kennedy Library Foundation and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. My thanks, as well, to the two anonymous reviewers and to Phil Brenner, John Dirks, and Galen Perras; their thoughtful comments and criticisms on earlier drafts of this paper were of great help.

Notes

A former Archival Assistant at Library and Archives Canada, Asa McKercher is a post-graduate at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where his work focuses on comparative reactions to the Cuban revolution.

 [1] Library and Archives Canada (LAC), H Basil Robinson fonds, MG 31 E83, vol. 6, file 11, Washington to External, tel. 2987, 15 October 1962.

 [2] Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 22 October 1962, 805–6.

 [3] On the antagonistic relationship between Kennedy and Diefenbaker see Nash, Kennedy and Diefenbaker. Excellent examinations of Canada's role in the missile crisis are: Jockel, Canada in NORAD, 1957–2007; and Haydon, The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

 [4] On Diefenbaker's populism, see Robinson, Diefenbaker's World. On Canadian nationalism, see Granatstein, Yankee Go Home?

 [5] Ghent, ‘Canada, the United States, and the Cuban Missile Crisis’, 160. For differences over policy during this period generally, see Granatstein, ‘When Push Came to Shove’; Bothwell, Alliance and Illusion, 155–78. An excellent discussion of the issue of perception is Wylie, Perceptions of Cuba.

 [6] See Donaghy and Stevenson, ‘The Limits of Alliance’; Glazov, Canadian Policy toward Khrushchev's Soviet Union.

 [7] See Engel, ‘Of Fat and Thin Communists’; Mastanduno, ‘Trade as a Strategic Weapon’; Cain, ‘Exporting the Cold War’.

 [8] For ‘strong arm tactics’ see Molinaro, ‘“Calculated Diplomacy”’, 90. Other examinations taking a similar view of Canadian–Cuban–American relations during this period include: Morley, Imperial State and Revolution, 191–5; Klepak, ‘50 Years of a Complex but Positive Relationship’, 261–3; Kirk and McKenna, Canada–Cuba Relations, 33–65.

 [9] Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 16 December 1960, 867.

[10] Dirks, ‘Moving From Friction to Cooperation’.

[11] LAC, Howard Green fonds, MG 32 B13, vol. 7, file 10, Memorandum, ‘The Cuban Question’, Norman Robertson to Green, 11 January 1962.

[12] See John F. Kennedy Library (JFKL), National Security Files (NSF), series 1, box 18, file Canada, General 1/61–3/61, Memorandum of Conversation, ‘Visit of Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker’, 20 February 1961; and LAC, MG 31 E83, vol. 4, file February 1961, Memorandum, ‘Conversations between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada, the White House, Washington, February 20, 1961’, 21 February, 1961. For the meeting in May see JFKL, NSF, series 1, box 18, file Canada, General, Ottawa Trip 5/17/61 Memoranda of Conversation, Memorandum of Conversation, ‘Conversation between President Kennedy and Prime Minister Diefenbaker – Cuba and Latin America’, 17 May 1961; and LAC, MG 31 E83, vol. 5, file 7, Memorandum, ‘Visit of President Kennedy to Ottawa, May 16–18, 1961. Meeting with the President, May 17’, 17 May 1961.

[13] See Record of Actions at the 483d Meeting of the National Security Council, 5 May 1961; and Memorandum for the Record, ‘Debrief of NSC meeting, 5 May 61’, 5 May 1961, FRUS, 1961–63, 481–8; LAC, Department of External Affairs fonds, RG 25, vol. 7607, file 11280-1-40 pt. 2.2, Washington to External, tel. 820, 15 March 1961; JFKL, George W. Ball Papers, series 1, box 2, file Canada, 4/26/61-11/8/63, Telcon: Ball, Dillon. 8 May 1961; and LAC, Privy Council Office (PCO), RG 2, series A-5-a, vol. 6176, Cabinet Conclusions, 9 May 1961.

[14] On the efforts to isolate Cuba and on Mongoose, see Schoultz, That Infernal Little Cuban Republic, chap. 7; Fursenko and Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble, chaps 6, 7, and 8.

[15] Review of Operation Mongoose by Chief of Operations Lansdale, ‘The Cuba Project’, 18 January 1962. In The Kennedys and Cuba , 93.

[16] See Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 29 January 1962, 301–2; LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Memorandum, Robertson to Green, 29 January 1962; and Memorandum, A.E. Ritchie to Basil Robinson, 29 January 1962; and JFKL, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Collection, White House Files, box 3a, file Canada, Ottawa Embassy to State, no. 708, 29 January 1962.

[17] For an overview of the Punta del Este conference see Schoultz, That Infernal Little Cuban Republic, 173–5.

[18] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5228, file 6660–40, pt. 4, Washington to External, tel. 398, 9 February 1962.

[19] LAC, MG 31 E83, vol. 5, file 4, Letter, Robinson to Robertson, 27 April 1961. See also: LAC, MG 31 E44, vol. 2, file 9, Memorandum, ‘Heeney’, John Diefenbaker to file, 22 May 1961; McKenna, Canada and the OAS , 76–80.

[20] Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 2 February 1962, 479–80. The following day, in an effort to explain to Americans that Canada possessed stiff export regulations, these remarks were repeated in a press release by Canada's embassy in Washington. See LAC, RG 25, vol. 5077, file 4568–40 pt. 10, Press Release ‘Canadian Trade with Cuba’, 3 February 1962.

[21] A Canadian federal election seemed imminent throughout 1962 and would take place that June. JFKL, NSF, series 1, box 18, file Canada, General, 2/62-3/62, Ottawa Embassy to State, no. 728, 2 February 1962.

[22] JFKL, NSF, series 1, box 18, file Canada, General, 2/62-3/62, Ottawa to State, no. A-291, ‘General Talk with Cabinet Members’, 8 February 1962.

[23] ‘Fiasco at Punta del Este’, Globe and Mail, 31 January 1962.

[24] ‘Trade with Cuba’, Globe and Mail, 3 February 1962.

[25] ‘Canada's Trade with Cuba’, Ottawa Citizen, 3 February 1962.

[26] ‘Anti-Cuba Embargo Unlikely’, Montreal Gazette, 5 February 1962.

[27] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5352, file 10224–40 pt. 12.1, NATO Delegation Paris to External, tel. 466, 21 February 1962; and Morley, Imperial State and Revolution, 191–2.

[28] US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Department of State Records, RG 59, Bureau of European Affairs, Office of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs (BNA), Alpha-Numeric Files Relating to Canadian Affairs, 1957–63, box 5, file Cuban Export Ban, 1960–62, Letter, Tyler to Rusk, 13 February 1962.

[29] JFKL, White House Central Subject Files, box 240, file FO 3-3-1/CO 55 Cuba (Executive & General), Memorandum, ‘Embargo upon imports from Cuba’, Feldman to Kennedy, 16 February 1962.

[30] NARA, RG 59, Bureau of European Affairs (EUR), Country Director for Canada, Records Relating to Political Matters, 1957–66, box 3, file Cuba 1962–63, Memorandum of Conversation, ‘The Problem of Cuba in Relation to Canada’, 16 February 1962; LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Washington to External, tel. 515, 19 February 1962.

[31] Diefenbaker quoted in 20 February diary entry in Robinson, Diefenbaker's World, 250.

[32] LAC, RG 2, series A-5-a, vol. 6192, Cabinet Conclusions, 20 February 1962.

[33] LAC, RG 2, series A-5-a, vol. 6192, Cabinet Conclusions, 20 February 1962, 26 February 1962.

[34] JFKL, NSF, series 1, box 18, file Canada, General 5/15/61-5/30/61, Rusk to Kennedy, Secto 113, 14 May 1961; see also: NARA, Foreign Service Post Files, RG 84, Canada, Ottawa Embassy, Classified General Records, 1959–61, box 224, file Cuba Limited Distribution, 1959–61, Rusk to American Embassy Ottawa, Oslo 6, 10 May 1961.

[35] LAC, MG 31 E83, vol. 5, file 18, Memorandum, ‘Cuba – Trade Policy’, Campbell to Under-Secretary, 23 February 1962. Basil Robinson's diary entry for 21 February records that Green had urged Diefenbaker that they should seek to make ‘a somewhat less aggressive defence of existing government line’ on Cuban policy; see Robinson, Diefenbaker's World, 251.

[36] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5031, file 1415-F-40 pt. 8, Memorandum, ‘Canada-US Interparliamentary Group, Sixth Meeting, Ottawa, February 29–March 3, 1962, Economic Committee’, USA Division to file, undated. See also ‘Talks With U.S. Flowery, Thorny’, Globe and Mail, 2 March 1962; ‘Legislators of Canada and U.S. Hold Talk’, Chicago Tribune, 2 March 1962.

[37] See diary entries for 28 February, 1 March and 2 March 1962 in Robinson, Diefenbaker's World, 252–3. For Diefenbaker's unused speech, see LAC, MG 31 E83, vol. 5, file 19, ‘Notes for Prime Minister's use at dinner in honour of members of the Canada-United State Inter-parliamentary Group, Ottawa, March 1, 1962’.

[38] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Montevideo to External, tel. 24, 2 March 1962.

[39] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Montevideo to External, tel. 24, 2 March 1962, Quito to External, tel. 15, 2 March 1962.

[40] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Montevideo to External, tel. 24, 2 March 1962, Havana to External, tel. 28, 6 March 1962.

[41] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Montevideo to External, tel. 24, 2 March 1962, Rio de Janeiro to External, tel. 33, 9 March 1962. On Brazil's own position towards Cuba, see Hershberg, ‘The United States, Brazil, and the Cuban Missile Crisis’ (Parts 1 and 2).

[42] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Bogota to External, tel. 16, 5 March 1962.

[43] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Bogota to External, tel. 16, 5 March 1962, Santiago to External, tel. 30, 6 March 1962.

[44] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Bogota to External, tel. 16, 5 March 1962, Washington to External, tel. 627, 1 March 1962.

[45] LAC, MG 31, E83, vol. 5, file 19, Memorandum, ‘Relations with Cuba’, Robertson to Green, 8 March 1962.

[46] LAC, RG 2, series A-5-a, vol. 6192, Cabinet Conclusions, 10 April 1962.

[47] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Letter, ‘U.S.A. Press Criticism of Canada’, Heeney to Green, 22 March 1962.

[48] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5030, file 1415–40 pt. 10, Letter, ‘U.S.A. Press Criticism of Canada’, Heeney to Green, 22 March 1962, Numbered Letter 177, Consulate, New York, to Under-Secretary, 9 April 1962.

[49] NARA, RG 59, EUR, Country Director for Canada, Records Relating to Political Matters, 1957–66, box 3, file Cuba 1962–63, Memorandum of Conversation, ‘United States Delegation to the Twenty-Ninth Ministerial Meeting of the North Atlantic Council, Athens, Greece, May 4–6, 1962, NATO Policy toward Cuba, 3 May, 1962’, 3 May 1962; and LAC, RG 25, vol. 5077, file 4568–40 pt. 10, Memorandum, ‘Minister's Conversation with Mr. Rusk at NATO Ministerial Meeting at Athens’, George Ignatieff to Under-Secretary, 11 May 1962.

[50] LAC, MG 31 E83, vol. 6, file 2, Draft Memorandum, ‘Conversations with Ambassador Merchant and Mr. Armstrong of the United States Embassy’, Robinson to file, 9 May 1962.

[51] See LAC, RG 25, vol. 5077, file 4568–40 pt. 10, NATO Delegation Paris to External, tel. 1258, 23 May 1962; and NATO Delegation Paris to External, tel. 1171, 11 May 1962.

[52] See LAC, RG 25, vol. 5077, file 4568–40 pt. 10, NATO Delegation to Paris to External, tel. 1314, 29 May 1962; NATO Delegation Paris to External, tel. 1419, 13 June 1962; NATO Delegation Paris to External, tel. 1646, 21 June 1962.

[53] For an excellent overview of Canadian intelligence operations in Cuba, see Munton, ‘Intelligence Cooperation Meets International Studies Theory’. The following work also touches, briefly, on the Canadian element of this intelligence programme: Hershberg, ‘Their Men in Havana’.

[54] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5352, file 10224–40 pt. 12.2, Numbered Letter 401, Havana to External, 16 August 1962.

[55] Cruz quoted in Kirk and McKenna, Canada–Cuba Relations, 62.

[56] ‘Telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom’, 30 August 1962. FRUS, 1961–1963, 970.

[57] Memorandum from Chief of Operations Lansdale to the Special Group (Augmented) by Chief of Operations Lansdale, ‘Review of Operation Mongoose’, 25 January 1962. In The Kennedys and Cuba, 125.

[58] US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and Committee on Armed Services Hearing, ‘The World Situation’, 5 September 1962, 700. Digital National Security Archive, Document No. CC00348.

[59] Letter, Ball to Paul Kitchen, Chairman, Select Committee on Export Controls, 8 October 1962, Tab ‘B’. Digital National Security Archive, Document No. CC00546.

[60] ‘U.S.–Canada Rift Now a Dead Issue’, Ottawa Citizen, 22 September 1962.

[61] See LAC, RG 25, vol. 5077, file 4568–40 pt. 10, Letter, ‘Closing of Commercial Section in Havana’, Latin American Division (Alfred Pick) to Minister's Office (Malcolm Bow), 3 August 1962; Letter, ‘Closing of Commercial Section in Havana’, Bow to Latin American Division, 8 August, 1962; and Numbered Letter 398, Havana to External, 16 August 1962.

[62] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5077, file 4568–40 pt. 10, Memorandum, ‘Relations with Cuba’, Robertson to Green, 26 September 1962.

[63] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5077, file 4568–40 pt. 10, Memorandum, ‘Policy on Cuba’, Robertson to Green, 5 October 1962.

[64] Ignatieff, The Making of a Peacemonger, 205.

[65] See Domínguez, ‘The @#$%& Missile Crisis’.

[66] LAC, MG 31 E83, vol. 6, file 11, Washington to External, tel. 3087, 23 October 1962.

[67] LAC, RG 25, vol. 4184, file 2444–40 pt. 10, Memorandum, ‘Cuba’, Campbell to Robertson, 24 October 1962.

[68] LAC, RG 25, vol. 4184, file 2444–40 pt. 9, Letter, Ivan White to A.E. Ritchie, 23 October 1962; and LAC, RG 25, vol. 5077, file 4568–40 pt. 10, External to Havana, tel. XL90, 23 October 1962,

[69] LAC, Arnold Smith fonds, MG 31 E47, vol. 80, file 21, Moscow to External, tel. 661, 28 November 1962.

[70] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5352, file 10224–40 pt. 12.2, Havana to External, tel. 211, 27 October 1962; and LAC, RG 25, vol. 4184, file 2444–40 pt. 12, Havana to External, tel. 229, 5 November 1962.

[71] LAC, RG 25, vol. 5352, file 10224–40 pt. 12.2, Washington to External, tel. 3139, 26 October 1962; Washington to External, tel. 3175, 29 October 1962; External to Havana, outgoing message G-162, 29 October, 1962; Havana to Washington, emergency tel. ‘Cuba Radio Broadcast’, 30 October 1962; Havana to Washington, emergency tel. ‘Unofficial Reactions to Crisis’, 30 October 1962; and Havana to Washington, emergency tel. ‘Official Reactions to Crisis’, 30 October 1962.

[72] LAC, MG31 E83, vol. 6, file 12, Memorandum, ‘Bahamas Meetings – Dec. 21–22, 1962. Specific points discussed with President Kennedy at Luncheon Meeting, Dec. 21’, Diefenbaker to file, undated.

[73] LAC, RG 25, vol. 4184, file 2444–40 pt. 10, External to Permanent Mission, New York and Washington, outgoing message XL-106, 25 October 1962.

[74] LAC, RG 25, vol. 4184, file 2444–40 pt. 11, Washington to External, tel. 3166, 27 October 1962.

[75] LAC, RG 25, vol. 4184, file 2444–40 pt. 11, Memorandum, ‘Cuba and the United Nations’, United Nations Division to Robertson, 30 October 1962; and Permanent Mission, New York to External, tel. 1983, 29 October 1962. See also ‘Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission to the United Nations, 29 October, 1962, 10:50 p.m.’; and ‘Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission to the United Nations, 31 October, 1962, 12:46 p.m.’, FRUS, 1961–1963, 302 and 325–31.

[76] LAC, RG 25, vol. 4184, file 2444–40 pt. 11, Memorandum, ‘Cuba’, Campbell to Robertson, 30 October 1962; and LAC, MG31 E83, vol. 6, file 13, Memorandum, ‘Cuba’, Robinson to Ritchie, 1 November 1962.