In 1951, Canada announced that it would send ground troops to western Europe to support its NATO allies. Historians have since interpreted the arrival of a brigade in Germany as a key event in the army’s golden age, a period when Canada earned its reputation as a solid contributor to the NATO alliance. Drawing on previously classified documents, Isabel Campbell discloses the reality behind the rhetoric. Military officials and political leaders poured resources into the brigade, sent families overseas, and implemented personnel policies that permanently changed the distribution of the defence budget and the character of the Canadian Army. Although they hoped the brigade would help draw the West Germans into NATO and further Canada’s plans for peace and prosperity in the postwar world, in private they expressed doubts about NATO’s strategy and its plans to use nuclear weapons. By exposing the hidden agendas that pushed NATO’s members in different directions even as they presented a united front, this original account of the evolution of the Canadian Army – from a small training cadre to a truly national force – offers a new perspective on military policy and diplomacy in the Cold War era. | Unlikely Diplomats by Isabel Campbell, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters