The Cold War

 Each time Canadian veterans of the Second World War have returned to the Netherlands, they have been welcomed with love by the Dutch as heroes. Now there are so few of them left.

The end of the war in Europe was euphoric for those who served and those at home.

Demobilization and the return home took a year or more for some, and required programs by the government to get those who served to adjust back to civilian life.

There were new challenges for the country, including protecting the vastness of the Canadian north.

And new tensions were brewing- the Cold War, a half century of simmering hostilities and proxy wars.

One of the causes of the Cold War was here in Ottawa, where Soviet clerk Igor Gouzenko uncovered evidence at the embassy that the Soviets were spying on their western allies. He and his family went into protective custody and began a new life in Canada when he defected, and whenever he would appear in public, he was always masked.

He turned to writing, and his books are displayed here.

The Cold War would break out into a hot war on the Korean Peninsula. Canadians would be part of the Korean War.