The Cold War and the Curate's Egg
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| Author | Robert Bothwell |
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209805300302 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ROBERT
BOTHWELL
The
cold
war
and
the
curate's
egg
When
did
Canada's
cold
war
really
begin?
Later
than
you
might
think.
L
ET
ME
TELL YOU
A
STORY,
BEGINS
THE
FAIRY
TALE.
It
is
early
Septem-
ber 1945,
a
hot
Ottawa
day,
the
start
of
a
steamy
late
summer
week-
end.
At
the
Soviet embassy,
at
the
top
of
Charlotte
Street,
a
bulky,
sweating
figure
emerges,
like
many
others from Ottawa's
office
build-
ings,
and
heads for
home.
Igor
Gouzenko
is
a
cypher
clerk
at
the
embassy;
his
duties,
among
other
things,
involve
encoding
espionage
reports
from
Soviet
agents
in
Canada.
The
year was
a
busy one
in
Gouzenko's
business.
The
war
ended,
in
stages:
indeed
the
last stage,
the war
against
Japan,
had
just
been
com-
pleted with the
surrender
of
the
Japanese
empire
after
an
American
atomic
bomb
was
dropped
on
Hiroshima.
It
was
a
subject
about
which
Moscow
had
some
curiosity,
and,
since
Canada
was
involved,
in
a
minor
way,
in
the
development
of
the
American
secret
weapon,
frag-
mentary
reports
on
atomic
research
featured in
the
traffic back
to Rus-
sia,
along
with
information
on
the movements
of
allied
armies
in
Europe,
descriptions
of
Canadian
military
research
projects,
and
other
moderately
interesting
data.
All
routine
stuff,
except for
the
fact
that
Gouzenko
the
cypher
clerk
had
stuffed
the
lot
into
his
briefcase.
For
Gouzenko had
been
recalled
Professor
ofHistori
University
of
Toronto.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer
1998
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