John Clearwater, a military-strategic analyst with the Department of National Defence, creates “an operational-technical history” in Canadian Nuclear Weapons, reconstructing the story of those weapons in Canada between 1963 and 1984.

Nuclear weapons on Canadian soil or with Canadian forces overseas are divided into four categories: the BOMARC anti-aircraft missiles, the Starfighter weapons, the Honest John missiles, and the Genie rockets for the VooDoo fighters. The deployment, operational history, technical specifications, and political ramifications of each are considered. This is rounded out with a chapter on anti-submarine warfare, and a chapter on the machinations of Lester Pearson’s cabinet around the introduction of nuclear weapons into Canada in 1963. There are also extensive appendixes and more than two pages listing the bewildering array of acronyms used.

Canadian Nuclear Weapons is as comprehensive as is possible given that much of the primary archival material is still secret. Relevant documents, reproduced in full, give a sense of the time through the original wording. Any specifications the reader could wish for are in here, without rendering the text unreadable. A couple of humorous poems and some vivid images, such as trucks loaded with thermonuclear devices rolling into Canadian airbases in the dead of night, are included. It’s also interesting to discover that the government sometimes resorted to outright lies regarding Canada’s nuclear role, as when Lester Pearson told Parliament in 1963 that the agreement with the U.S. had not yet been signed when in fact he knew that it had.

Canadian Nuclear Weapons is not for everyone. Technical and detailed, the passages provoking a wistful nostalgia for the causes of the 1960s will not be enough to sustain a general reader. However, it is a thorough look at a time in our history that’s been shrouded in secrecy and subject to misconceptions for decades. For someone with a specific interest in Canada’s relationship with the U.S. and its role in the Cold War, it will be invaluable.