Canadian Peacekeeping in the 50s and 60s

Canadian Peacekeeping in the 50s and 60s

Post-war Peace

Canada throughout the 50s and 60s was heavily involved in peacekeeping, and in many ways, was the founder of the idea. In a post World War Two world, the two super powers (the USA and Soviet Russia) were always trying to find ways to sabotage the other. Canada tried and succeeded to act as a middle power, avoiding direct choosing of sides and instead becoming a mediator. The purpose of this essay is to look into the best peace mission Canada ever completed, with the Suez Crisis, the Congo Crisis, and the Cyprus Dispute being the analysed conflicts. The three traits that each crisis will be assessed on, will be casualties (civilian and combatant), length of intervention needed, and success of government after the intervention. Canadian Peacekeeping in the 50s and 60s was successful, with Suez being the "realistic ideal" for all missions to come.

When far right wing (but still democratically elected) President Nasser of Egypt forcefully nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 (a vital oil link to Europe from the Middle East), it caused a knee jerk reaction from France and England (the owners) that hadn't been seen since colonial times. They immediately tried to get UN backing, and when that didn't work, they worked with the Israelis to send paratroopers in, and take it back with force[1]. In total, in the actual fighting/standoff, there were 45,000 English troops, 34,000 French troops, 175,000 Israeli troops, all facing 70,000 Egyptians[2]. However, certain leaders foresaw the potential violence of not only the war itself, but also the resulting warming of the previously rather dormant Cold War, and when Lester B. Pearson and the Canadians stepped in, it came as a great relief to all the powers of the world. With this event, we created, and deployed the first peacekeeping operation ever, with quite the success.

The direct role of peacekeeping is heavily debated as there were many pressures exerted on the states involved to stop the violence as well as numerically it was roughly 324:1 in the way of combatants to Peacekeepers[3]. But peacekeeping isn't just manpower, it is also about politics. A combination of missile units installed by Russia to guard the Canal, as well as a potential Trade Embargo from the United States made it easy for the violence to stop, however the organization, and the first action to stop it was Canada's doing. Totalled up with only a few (under 20)[4] civilian casualties, and with a conflict length of only 8 days it was already a success, but mixed in with the fact that both countries are stable today, it was by far the most successful Canadian peacekeeping operation ever.

The Congo Crisis was created by the independence new African state to be Congo by the Belgian Government. In 1960 the Belgians colonial powers in Congo held a referendum whether to separate right then and there, versus a controlled backing out, that would have finally gained Congo independence much later. A majority unexpectedly voted for immediate independence, and Belgium had no plan for that result. Almost overnight Congo lost its governments structure, and the whole country disintegrated into 4 city-states supported by factions. Moise Tshombe of Katanga, immediately asked for support from Belgium and fixed his state and in Leopoldville Joseph Mobutu was supported by the Western Governments. The major problems were the other two, Antoine Gizenga was the leader of a Soviet client state in Stanleyville, which was one of the major theatres for peacekeeping in Congo, and a dictator named Albert Kalonji in South Kasai, was also quite the tyrant[5]. Canadian peacekeeping would be sent into action again.

The purpose of the peacekeepers was to stop the violence between the city states. Canada sent 412 peacekeepers[6]