A Friendly Invasion: The American Military in Newfoundland, 1940-1990

J.L. Granatstein is a professor of History at York University and author
of Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy.

Most Canadians, if not most Newfoundlanders, have forgotten that 50
years ago the United States sent troops into Newfoundland, then a Crown
colony of Great Britain. Under the stress of defeat in France, Britain
swapped bases in the Caribbean and in Newfoundland for 50 overage
American destroyers, and within months of that arrangement, the Yanks
had arrived. By every account, it was a friendly invasion, one that
continued into the Cold War and, at Argentia naval base, continues
still. More than 100,000 Americans in all served on the island and in
Labrador at 60 or more bases, and an astonishing 25,000 married local
women.

This book, more of a scrapbook than a history, is a labor of love by a
man who is described on the dust-jacket as “the son of a
Newfoundland-American union.” While there are countless splendid
photos and very useful lists of information, the whole is rather less
than the sum of its parts. Coherence is occasionally lacking, and errors
inevitably creep in. Still, this is a very useful compendium on the
major bases used and roles played by the U.S. forces; and most
important, it is a tribute to the friendly invaders who brought work and
wealth and modern ideas to a society in desperate need of all those
things. Canadians ought not to forget that other superpowers have staged
less friendly occupations of their neighbors.