Canadian Spies and Spies in Canada: Undercover at Home and Abroad

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom, Chile and the Nazis, and The Diplomacy of War: The Case of
Korea.

This book is part of a potentially admirable series: a collection of
fascinating Canadian anecdotes sold at an affordable price. It discusses
such celebrities (at least in the spy world) as William Stephenson
(Intrepid), Werner Alfred Waldemar von Janowski, Igor Gouzenko, and Hugh
Hambleton. The stories are short and easy to read.

Unfortunately, author and publisher could have benefited from a
competent proofreader, and hopefully Folklore Publishing will engage one
before printing other titles. Boer is a journalist with good
communication skills but limited historical knowledge. For example, he
mentions that “Churchill defeated Chamberlain.” In reality, both
were Conservatives. There was no election. Chamberlain resigned, and
King George VI invited Churchill to replace him. Regarding Denmark, Boer
says that “the Nazis overthrew King Christian X” in 1942. They did
no such thing. Their invasion of Denmark happened in 1940, so suddenly
that the king could not escape; but he became the Resistance leader and
kept his throne until his death in 1947. Boer identifies Burma as an
“island” and uses the words “embassy” and “legation”
interchangeably. He says that Cold War tensions were dangerously high in
1955. Actually, the Austrian Peace Treaty took effect that year,
probably the happiest point between Stalin’s death and the Korean
truce of 1953 and the parade of crises in Berlin and Cuba that would
begin in 1958. “Gorbunov” resurfaces as “Gribanov” on pages
96–7. A few pages later Boer reports that in 1964, President Johnson
and Lester Pearson had a bad relationship because of differences over
Vietnam. However, the U.S. military buildup in Vietnam did not take
place until 1965.

Such mistakes shake a reader’s confidence. Also, the bibliography
does not mention Spy Wars, by J.L. Granatstein and David Stafford.
Together, Boer and a proofreader should be able to do better.