"The U.S. saw this as a test of our resolve to be its defence partner," [John Clearwater] noted. "We simply couldn't refuse."

His book details Canada's decision to allow the Pentagon to test cruise missiles over the country in the 1980s and the widespread protests against that. The book also reveals how an undercover RCMP officer infiltrated a peace camp set up on Parliament Hill and that the Canadian government allowed the U.S. to test its controversial neutron bomb in Quebec. No actual bomb was detonated during those tests which were designed to see how the weapon's components functioned in cold weather.

"It's really about the fear," he said in an interview. "The government feared people who disagreed with it during a time of a national emergency."