Diplomat, Dissident, Spook: A Canadian Diplomat’s Chronicles through the Cold War and Beyond by Bill Warden (Lisa Warden, ed.)
| Author | Stephen J. Randall |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702019831633 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
his life in steadfast solidarity with those who are less fortunate, something which, as
Helleiner concluded himself, ‘‘matters profoundly ...when change is slow and
successes are few’’ (298). As such, at its heart, this autobiography is about a
challenging but ethically grounded professional life that has been extremely well
and fully lived.
Bill Warden (Lisa Warden, ed.)
Diplomat, Dissident, Spook: A Canadian Diplomat’s Chronicles through the Cold War and
Beyond
Victoria: Tellwell, 2017. 378 pp. $32.00 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-1-77302-911-5
Reviewed by: Stephen J. Randall (srandall@ucalgary.ca), University of Calgary
Bill (William Thomas) Warden served in the Canadian foreign service from the
early 1960s until his retirement in the late 1980s, when he joined the University of
Calgary as director of the newly established International Centre. This memoir,
ably edited by his daughter Lisa, encompasses his student days in Berlin, his first
overseas posting in Moscow and subsequent increasingly senior postings in
Havana, as well as his time as commissioner in Hong Kong, consul general in
Macao, ambassador to Pakistan and Nepal, high commissioner to India, and
two risky but fascinating missions to Revolutionary Teheran. These were major
postings, all of them of critical importance during the Cold War. In the interest of
full disclosure, I did not know Bill until he joined the University of Calgary, but
thereafter worked closely with him on a number of projects, including our early
1992 trip to the newly established Gorbachev Foundation to invite Gorbachev to
Canada.
Three things come through most strongly in this memoir. The first is that, in
spite of the word ‘‘dissident’’ in the title, Warden firmly accepted the basic Western
assumptions about the sources of East–West tensions during the Cold War, and he
served in the areas—Moscow, Havana, Pakistan, and India—where those assump-
tions were fundamental to Canadian and Western diplomacy. He expressed no
discomfort during his time in Havana in providing regular reports to the CIA on
Cuban developments, hence the ‘‘spook’’ in the title. He was, he concedes, a Cold
Warrior, but a Cold Warrior who then and later understood the complexities of
East–West relations and the internal dynamics in the countries where he served.
The Berlin section reveals an intelligent young man exploring politics and ideol-
ogy in the charged atmosphere of East and West Berlin. His first overseas posting
to Moscow sheds light on the paranoia of a closed Soviet society, the restrictions
imposed on Western diplomats, and the internal dynamics of a large Canadian
embassy. Cuba followed Moscow. His posting coincided with the FLQ Crisis in
Quebec and Cuba’s acceptance of the FLQ leaders. Canadian interest in Cuba was
primarily political, aside from some minor economic interests and the fate of
expropriated Canadian companies. The intelligence gathering was not high tech,
180 International Journal 74(1)
To continue reading
Request your trial