Canadian Nuclear Weapons: The Untold Story of Canada's Cold War Arsenal

310 Pages·1998·15 MB·English

by  John Clearwater

CANADIAN
NUCLEAR
WEAPONS
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CANADIAN
NUCLEAR
WEAPONS
The Untold Story of Canada's Cold War Arsenal
John Clearwater
DUNDURN PRESS
Toronto • Oxford
1998
Copyright © John Clearwater 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior
permission of Dundurn Press Limited. Permission to photocopy should be requested from
the Canadian Reprography Collective.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Clearwater, John
Canadian nuclear weapons
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-55002-299-7
1. Nuclear weapons - Canada - History. I. Title.
U264.5.C3C53 1998 355.8'25119'0971 C97-931824-6
1 2 3 4 5 BJ 02 01 00 99 98
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for
our publishing program. We also acknowledge the support of the
THE CANADA COUNCIL I LECONSEH.DES A™ Ontario Arts Council and the Book Publishing Industry
FORs™cEA,w I DEPU,ASN,WA Development Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
E
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The
author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or
credit in subsequent editions.
Printed and bound in Canada.
Printed on recycled paper.
Dundurn Press Dundurn Press Dundurn Press
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 7
Acronyms 11
Introduction 15
Chapter 1
Pearson's Cabinet and the Political Agreement to
Acquire Nuclear Weapons for the Canadian Military 27
Chapter 2
BOMARC: the Weapon and the Squadrons 55
Chapter 3
Starfighter: the Weapons 91
Chapter 4
Starfighter: the Squadrons 117
Chapter 5
Honest John: the Weapon and the Batteries 153
Chapter 6
The CF-101B VooDoo and Genie Rocket 177
Chapter 7
Anti-Submarine Warfare 217
Concluding Thoughts 239
Appendix 241
•The 1963 Agreement and the Service-to-Service
Technical Arrangements
• Commanding Officers
• Bibliographic Notes, Sources,
Files, Archives, Libraries, and Agencies
Endnotes 297
For:
Archie, Spider, Tanner, Kiwi,
Mika, Roger, Minah, Smokey, and Mittens.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F
irstly, and most importantly, I would like to thank the staff of
the Government Archives Division of the National Archives of
Canada, and the Access to Information staff at the Archives for
the superb support they have provided. The staff in the Reading
Room at the Archives has also been terrific in putting up with a
myriad of requests.
Secondly, I thank the staff of the National Defence Directorate of
History (DHist) in Ottawa for allowing me access to their superb
collection of squadron and unit histories. I am also grateful for the
number of requests which Isabelle Campbell handled on an informal
basis.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, formerly External Affairs,
provided me with excellent support. I was accepted into their Academic
Access Programme, and after they were assured that I was a qualified
academic, I was given access to departmental files on nuclear weapons
discussions and acquisition. These files had been cleared for academic
viewing, but the contents remain closed until a declassifier reviews each
page. Although this book is now in print, there are still outstanding
requests from this process more than a year and a half later.
The Access to Information section in the Prime Minister's Office
and Privy Council Office provided a great deal of help to this project.
Ciuineas Boyle and her staff were able to give me all of the minutes of
both full Cabinet meetings and of Cabinet Defence Committee
meetings at which nuclear weapons were discussed. They have never
been anything but completely forthcoming with aid and information.
The National Defence Photo Unit in Ottawa was also especially
helpful in the completion of this work. I thank all of the staff in the
Central Negative Library, and Cpl. Steve Sauve.
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8 • CANADIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS
In the United States I received assistance from three vastly
different sources. The US National Archives and Records
Administration was able to provide State Department records for the
1961—1963 period, while the non-governmental National Security
Archive in Washington allowed me to browse through their files on
their upcoming nuclear weapons history project. The US Air Force
was also helpful in that the staff at the USAF Historical Research
Agency in Montgomery, Alabama, showed me files on USAF nuclear
support units and fed me great bar-b-q. Although this was a long train
ride on Amtrak from Montreal to Montgomery, it was worth it.
Back in Canada, the most curious research location was at Shilo,
Manitoba. This training site for the R.C. Artillery hosted an Honest
John battery, and is also an archival site. The CFB Shilo Artillery
Museum has retained some files on both 1 SSM Bty and 2 SSM Tg
Bty. Although it was a long drive from Winnipeg, it too was worth
the trip.
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COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is the position of the Government of Canada that all materials
generated by persons in their employ, even if those materials are top
secret memos between two persons, are covered by Crown Copyright
and are the intellectual property of the Government of Canada for 50
years after their publication. While I disagree with this position,
preferring to think that items paid for by the taxpayers are public
domain, I am legally bound to acknowledge this policy. To this end, I
would like to acknowledge the kindness of the Minister of Public
Works and Government Services; the Minister of National Defence;
the Secretary of State for External Affairs; and the Privy Council
Office in the clearance and provision of these materials. All materials
generated by a department appear courtesy of the Minister of that
department. In addition, photographs appear courtesy of the Public
Affairs office of National Defence Headquarters and National
Defence Photo Unit (Ottawa). Lastly, I thank Paul Hellyer and the
estate of Paul Martin for extending copyright clearance to this
publication.
DISCLAIMER
The words and sentiments expressed in this work are exclusively those
of the author, and do not reflect current official government policy,
nor do they reflect the editorial policy of Dundurn Press. Although
the documentary record is often confused, I alone am responsible for
historical errors, and apologize if any name has been spelled
incorrectly.
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