Camelot and Canada: Canadian-American Relations in the Kennedy Era by Asa McKercher

AuthorThomas Robb
DOI10.1177/0020702017740103
Published date01 December 2017
Date01 December 2017
Subject MatterBook Reviews
SG-IJXJ-72-04-TOC 1..2 582
International Journal 72(4)
about Russian expansionist threats after the Cold War, and in no way naı¨ve about
the violent Taliban threat to all of South Asia and beyond, made him a better
minister than most who served under Liberal regimes. That he was constrained in
some of the more courageous things he wanted to do, and well-sustained in others,
informs all who might read this compelling book about the issues that ‘‘feel good,
go with the f‌low’’ Liberal optimism has frequently imposed on the realism, prin-
ciples, and impact of Canadian foreign and defence policy.
Asa McKercher
Camelot and Canada: Canadian-American Relations in the Kennedy Era
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 298pp. $74.00 (hardcover)
ISBN: 9780190605056
Reviewed by: Thomas Robb (trobb@brookes.ac.uk), Oxford Brookes University
The presidency of John F. Kennedy continues to fascinate historians and the general
public alike. Recently, a number of in-depth studies on the Kennedy years have
surfaced which have shed considerable light on the president’s policies and motiv-
ations in both the domestic and international arena. In the realm of international
af‌fairs, Kennedy’s handling of the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, America’s
escalating involvement in Indochina, and of US relations with the Soviet Union, the
People’s Republic of China, and the various Western European allies, have
attracted signif‌icant attention. Asa McKercher’s study therefore builds on this sub-
stantial body of work by bringing into focus how the Kennedy administration
(1961–1963) managed relations with America’s northern neighbour, Canada,
during the tenure of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (1957–1963).
Camelot and Canada begins with a strong introduction that provides the reader
with the necessary contextual information for understanding the period under
study. Following a survey of US–Canadian relations during the f‌inal term of
Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency (1953–1961), the book analyses the central
aspects of...

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