Editing John Diefenbaker (section)

===== Ike and John: the Eisenhower years =====
[[File:John Diefenbaker and Dwight Eisenhower at signing of Columbia River Treaty (January 1961).jpg|thumb|left|alt=Diefenbaker and a Dwight Eisenhower sit at a table. Two women and three men stand behind them.|Diefenbaker (seated left) and US President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] at the signing of the Columbia River Treaty, 1961.]]

American officials were uncomfortable with Diefenbaker's initial election, believing they had heard undertones of anti-Americanism in the campaign. After years of the Liberals, one U.S. State Department official noted, "We'll be dealing with an unknown quantity."{{sfn|Nash|1990|p=46}} U.S. officials viewed Diefenbaker's 1958 landslide with disappointment; they knew and liked Pearson from his years in diplomacy and felt the Liberal Party leader would be more likely to institute pro-American policies.{{sfn|Nash|1990|p=50}} However, U.S. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] took pains to foster good relations with Diefenbaker. The two men found much in common, from Western farm backgrounds to a love of fishing, and Diefenbaker had an admiration for war leaders such as Eisenhower and [[Churchill]].{{sfn|Nash|1990|pp=54–55}} Diefenbaker wrote in his memoirs, "I might add that President Eisenhower and I were from our first meeting on an 'Ike–John' basis, and that we were as close as the nearest telephone."{{sfn|Diefenbaker|1976|p=157}} The Eisenhower–Diefenbaker relationship was sufficiently strong that the touchy Canadian Prime Minister was prepared to overlook slights. When Eisenhower addressed Parliament in October 1958, he downplayed trade concerns that Diefenbaker had publicly expressed. Diefenbaker said nothing and took Eisenhower fishing.{{sfn|Nash|1990|pp=56–57}}

Diefenbaker had approved plans to join the United States in what became known as [[NORAD]], an integrated air defence system, in mid-1957.{{sfn|Smith|1995|p=292}} Despite Liberal misgivings that Diefenbaker had committed Canada to the system before consulting either the Cabinet or Parliament, Pearson and his followers voted with the government to approve NORAD in June 1958.{{sfn|Smith|1995|pp=295–296}}