The Good Allies with Tim Cook
This fall, Juno Beach and Beyond is sharing a three-part series on Canadian authors with new releases. In episode 2, we’re joined by Tim Cook to talk about the importance of the Canada-USA alliance during the Second World War.
Canada and our American neighbours share so much: we share the longest border between any two nations; we have one of the largest trading relationships in the world; and we share much in the way of history and present-day culture. For Tim Cook, our shared experience in the Second World War is among the most successful military alliances in history.
In spite of this, little attention has been paid to this wartime alliance. The Anglo-American alliance, and the relationship between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill garners most of the attention. In Canada, our histories tend to concern themselves with Canada’s relationship with the United Kingdom rather than our burgeoning relationship with our southern neighbour. In this interview we discuss these themes and more. What was the relationship between the Canadian Prime Minister, W. L. Mackenzie King, and Roosevelt? How did Canada and the United States work together to defend North America? How did they mobilize their populations and industries to defeat the Axis powers? How did they fight together overseas? And what is the legacy of this cooperation for the bilateral relationship in the present?
Listen to the first episode in the series here.
TIME STAMPS
0:01:44 Canada-US relations before the Second World War
0:04:55 Effect on Canada’s relationship with the UK
0:11:06 Lend-Lease
0:14:18 Protecting Canadian sovereignty
0:16:50 Newfoundland
0:19:53 American and Canadian personnel serving in each other’s military
0:26:45 Asiatic-Pacific theater
0:31:30 Correcting the history
GUEST BIOGRAPHY
Tim Cook is Chief Historian and Director of Research at the Canadian War Museum. His bestselling books have won multiple awards, including four Ottawa Book prizes for Literary Non-Fiction and two C.P. Stacey Awards for the best book in Canadian military history. In 2008 he won the J.W. Dafoe Prize for At the Sharp End and again in 2018 for Vimy: The Battle and the Legend. Shock Troops won the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Cook is a frequent commentator in the media, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the Order of Canada. His most recent book is The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States fought Together to Defeat Fascism During the Second World War.
CREDITS
This episode of Juno Beach and Beyond was hosted by Alex Fitzgerald-Black, Executive Director and produced by Sal Falk, Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for the Juno Beach Centre Association.
Mackenzie King’s speech to British Parliament from the British Pathé YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SlEvclY5LE&t=48s
Artillery firing sounds from the CBC News: The National YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsCSQ4uWR1Y
Female veteran’s voice (Eileen Green, née Short) Courtesy of The Memory Project, Historica Canada: http://www.thememoryproject.com/stories/383:eileen-green-nee-short/
Winston Churchill’s “Finest Hour” speech from Jonathan Thomas’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB5wZtV1MWM
Spitfire sound effect from Jason Kirby’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgZI4tAoMN0
Dramatic Interlude by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Dispatches from Juno shares all the news, events, and stories from the Juno Beach Centre in France and Canada. Interested in contributing a story to the blog? Email the editor at jbca@junobeach.org.
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