Long polar watch: Canada and the defence of North America

The hostility of the Soviet leadership toward free institutions and free peoples and the growth of Soviet military power make it imperative that the forces that oppose Soviet ambitions be strongly armed, unceasingly vigilant, and politically united. Yet the unprecedented range in yields of nuclear weapons and the speed with which they can be hurled over intercontinental distances raise the awesome. specter nuclear catastrophe in the minds of responsible citizens everywhere. Because of this, the United States is deeply interested in the complex problems of command and control over nuclear forces and the political effects upon its allies of the introduction of these necessary weapons into the arsenals of freedom.

In recent years, changes in the requirements for the defense of strategic forces have deeply influenced U.S. relations with Canada as a key nation whose traditions and geography place it in the forefront of Western defense. The far-reaching responsibility placed upon that nation to keep the long polar watch against the threat of Soviet attack has involved it in a multitude of problems which have been of concern to it and the United States.