Fortress North America is a term used both during the Second World War and more often in the Cold War to refer to the option of defending Canada and the United States against their enemies if the rest of the world were lost to them.
It was viewed only as a last-ditch option in case Europe and Asia were overrun by the fascists or Communists. At the outset of the Cold War there were some, especially in the United States, who supported the isolationist idea of fortifying North America and abandoning international involvements. This option was rejected with the formation of NATO and the decision to permanently station troops in Europe.
During the Cold War significant planning and effort went into developing continental defense systems just in case. Most notable were the formation of NORAD and the setting up of radar lines in the Canadian Arctic. Canadians were long concerned that the adoption of a Fortress North America strategy involving close intergovernmental links and the loss of outside links would inevitably result in the nation's absorption by the United States.
In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks the idea of Fortress North America has been revived as a strategy of keeping both nations safe from terrorism while keeping the Canada/U.S. border undefended and open to trade.
Famous quotes containing the words north america, fortress, north and/or america:
“The compulsion to do good is an innate American trait. Only North Americans seem to believe that they always should, may, and actually can choose somebody with whom to share their blessings. Ultimately this attitude leads to bombing people into the acceptance of gifts.”
—Ivan Illich (b. 1926)
“Man is exceedingly well defended against himself, against being scouted out and besieged by himself, and he is usually able to make out no more of himself than his outer fortifications. The actual fortress is inaccessible to him, even invisible, unless his friends and enemies turn traitor to him and lead him there by secret paths.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The English were very backward to explore and settle the continent which they had stumbled upon. The French preceded them both in their attempts to colonize the continent of North America ... and in their first permanent settlement ... And the right of possession, naturally enough, was the one which England mainly respected and recognized in the case of Spain, of Portugal, and also of France, from the time of Henry VII.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I do not share the gloomy thought that Negroes in America are doomed to be stomped out bodaciously, nor even shackled to the bottom of things. Of course some of them will be tromped out, and some will always be at the bottom, keeping company with other bottom-folks.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)