Description: This landmark book dispels the idea that the period between the Second World War and the unification of the armed services in 1968 constituted the Canadian Army's "golden age." Drawing on recently declassified documents, Peter Kasurak depicts an era clouded by the military leadership's failure to loosen the grasp of British army culture, produce its own doctrine, and advise political leaders effectively. The discrepancy between the army's goals and the Canadian state's aspirations as a peacemaker in the postwar world resulted in a series of civilian-military crises that ended only when the scandal of the Somalia Affair in 1993 forced reform.
Brief description:
Peter Kasurak is a fellow of the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen's University. He is the former senior principal at the Office of the Auditor General of Canada responsible for National Defence and National Security projects, and a former instructor at both the Canadian Forces College and the Royal Military College. In addition to writing numerous articles on the army, military culture, and civil-military relations in Canada, he is the author of A National Force: The Evolution of Canada's Army, 1950-2000 and Canada's Mechanized Infantry: The Evolution of a Combat Arm, 1920-2012.