| February 20 |  |
Editor says, what if United States' northern neighbour came to the rescue after the Cuban War went nuclear? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the March 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1959, on this day the Canadian Government terminated the CF-105 Arrow Interceptor Fighter Plane project.
Mothballing of Avro Arrow ProjectThe Sputnik launch had forced an immediate re-evaluation of Nuclear Defense Policy. Intercontinental ballistic missiles were upgraded to a greater future threat than bombers and therefore funds were redirected to buy Boeing's Bomarc Missiles.
In Malton, Ontario the fourteen thousand employees of Avro were informed via the company's public address system that they had all lost their jobs with immediate effect. One of Canada's most promising industries had been shut down, and many skilled engineers went south to seek employment with American Aerospace Companies.
The head of the company Fred Smye was locked in an even bigger dispute with the Diefenbaker Government who had ordered him to not only halt testing of the plane, but to also destroy all prototypes, engines and drawings, technical designs data and drawings. When he refused, they reminded him it was government property, and threatened to send in the Army to carry out the order. But Test Pilot Spud Potocki made a public stand, and Diefenbaker was forced to back down.
As events transpired, it was fortunate that the project had been mothballed rather than utterly destroyed. Because three years later the Cuban Missiles Crisis escalated into nuclear war. Canada then set upon implementing the The Dieffenbaker Plan to claim the territory possessed by the United States to rehabilitate that land "back to a standard of civilization".
This post is a prequel to Raymond Speer's Dieffenbaker Plan thread.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Cuba62 Canada Source: Wikipedia Labels: Diefenbaker, Canada, Cuba, Avro, Arrow.
~ In the immortal words of Arte Johnson, "Verrrrrrrrrrrry interesting..."
~ ~"destroy all prototypes, engineers and drawings" ~ Destroy the engineers? I knew you Canadians were a savage bunch (just look at my ex-wife's family) but to kill off anyone with any knowledge of the project????? My bad I meant to say "enginers" - fixed, thanks. Ed
~ It'd take a nuclear war to sort out American health care...
~ I don't think that nuclear war between the US and USSR in the early 1960s would have done that much damage; the US was out of range of most USSR-based stuff and there wasn't that much in Cuba; that stuff also had a limited range. We might have lost some cities, but there'd be large areas not much affected. And there'd be enough left that we wouldn't be thrown back to a state where Canada could intervene.
~ Canada wouldn't want to intervene. It might have to allow Americans to vote.
~ On the other hand, the Soviets wouldn't have had to completely wreck the U.S. to cripple us economically and politicallt. read Brendan duBois's "Resurrection Day" for a realistic-feeling post-Cuba War scenario.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
