In Search of A U.S. Policy Toward Canada: Imperial Hegemon, Benevolent Neighbour Or Neither? York U. Prof. Co-Authors New Book, Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American Policies Toward Canada

TORONTO, August 16, 1999 -- As Canadians mark the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Free Trade Agreement and as chatter of a common currency swirls around our capital cities, a new book by York University political scientist Edelgard Mahant and Laurentian University historian Graeme S. Mount investigates the gap between Canadian perceptions of American policy towards Canada and actual U.S. policy.

In Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American Policies Toward Canada, published by UBC Press, the authors examine White House policy from 1945 to the 1980s, debunking both the prevailing Canadian view that the U.S. has treated us as a dependent, and the notion that Washington has respected Canadian advice on foreign policy issues or benefitted from it.

"When Canadians think or speak of the United States, they tend to think in terms of stereotypes: America the imperial hegemon or America the benevolent liberal neighbour," said Mahant, who teaches at York University's Glendon College. "In this book, we try to find the truth behind these images."

To do that, the authors visited presidential archives across the U.S. -- examining recently de-classified documents -- and interviewed key American policy makers such as Dean Rusk, former Secretary of State under President Johnson, and Walt Rostow, Johnson's National Security Advisor. They conclude that Washington's interest in, and attention to, relations with Canada has declined progressively since the end of World War II. Instead of a ëCanada Policy,' Washington produced a series of policies arising in an ad hoc manner in answer to specific trade and foreign policy issues.

Mahant writes that Canada played a liberal internationalist role only during the first 10 years after the Second World War, a role that reached its zenith during the 1956 Middle East crisis when Prime Minister Lester Pearson's mediatory efforts won him the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Since then, there are relatively few examples of the Americans accepting a liberal internationalist role for Canada in their relations, apart from Canada's peacekeeping role in Cyprus in 1964, and in southern Africa toward the end of the Cold War." The authors say a frequent phenomenon in U.S.-Canadian relations is that Canadians think they can give advice and moderate American policy, but the Americans will have none of it.

"President Franklin Delano Roosevelt may have valued Prime Minister Mackenzie King's advice, but post-war presidents had little use for Canadian advice. Presidents Johnson and Nixon did not want Prime Minister Pearson's counsel on Vietnam; Prime Minister Trudeau's peace initiative only annoyed the Reagan White House; and Prime Minister Mulroney could not persuade his friend Reagan to take a stronger stand against South Africa's apartheid policies," the authors conclude.

Overall, Washington's treatment of Canada was issue by issue more often than it was part of a more general U.S. foreign policy objective. Yet there were exceptions. Says Mahant: "While the influence of major U.S. firms helped to create the Autopact and to undo attempts at national - much less continental - energy policies on both sides of the border, wider political purposes prevailed at other times. The creation of NAFTA or NATO or the 1971 elimination of the gold standard are examples of American policies inspired by larger political goals."

Among the book's findings:

President Jimmy Carter (1977-81) had high praise for Canada when the government agreed to deploy Canadian soldiers to stand between Cuban and South African troops fighting in Namibia in 1977-78, whereas President John F. Kennedy was frustrated with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker over Canada's Cuba policy and its stand on nuclear weapons.

During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson (1963-69) was livid about Canadian neutrality and considered Canada's diplomatic behaviour in Vietnam disrespectful.

President Harry Truman (1945-53) complained that Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent was overly sensitive about the stationing of U.S. nuclear weapons at Goose Bay, Labrador.

Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American Policies Toward Canada is available in bookstores for $45. The State University of Michigan Press plans to publish a paperback version early in the year 2000.

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For more information, please contact:

Dr. Edelgard Mahant
Dept. of Political Science, Glendon College
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 88599
or (416) 487-6735
email: mahant@erda.glendon.yorku.ca

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
email: sbigelow@yorku.ca
YU/083/99