Unification was, indeed, poorly thought out but Mr. Hellyer can be forgiven because he received lousy advice - including from his service chiefs.
Two factors dominated:
"¢ Money; and
"¢ More money.
As early as 1960 the government-of-the-day (Conservative (Dief the Chief) or Liberal (Mike Pearson), makes no never mind) faced an ever growing list of increasingly expensive defence materiel requirements which had to be accommodated in an environment in which Canadians wanted to spend less and less on services which brought them no direct, measurable benefits (usually seen as a cheque with a red maple leaf on the envelope), Ministers from successive governments and senior bureaucrats were convinced that DND, especially, was poorly organized - top to bottom. Many politicians and senior bureaucrats had WWII service and they had, almost uniformly, returned to civvy street with a firm conviction that Navy, Army and Air Force HQs were part of the problem - any problem.
The Glasco Commission was not so much evidence of bureaucratic ineptitude - throughout the government - as it was an indictment of the military and civilian staffs in defence HQ. The AVRO Arrow fiasco gave the Commission all the evidence needed to convince ministers - not just Hellyer - that the defence staff and the civilian departmental staff were paralyzed, unable (not unwilling) to make sound policy judgements.
Hellyer should not be blamed for coming to believe that he might find some of the savings he needed by shaking up a moribund bureaucracy.
Hellyer should be blamed for two things:
"¢ Picking a lousy staff; and
"¢ Failing to pay attention to the briefings given by his American colleagues.
Paul Hellyer's closest advisor was a retired RCAF senior officer named Bill Lee. Lee was a public relation officer and a political whiz kid of considerable repute. He had a particular point of view - he detested the Anglophilic navy and army, regarding them as anti-French and anti-modern anachronisms which were dangerous to national unity and served as impediments to logical, operational defence reorganization.
Hellyer and Lee listened to the (then) recent, bruising experience in the USA. The Americans told them:
"¢ Unification (joint staffs, joint formations, joint operations): Yes!
"¢ Integration (purple units and diluted, multi-service standards): No!
----- At this point 'facts', as I understand them, end and opinion begins. -----
It has always seemed to me that Hellyer and Lee got the whole thing back-asswards, probably by mistake. Relations between Hellyer/Lee and most of the senior admirals, generals and air marshals were already poisonous because Lee insisted upon putting himself in between Hellyer and DM and service chiefs Hellyer insisted upon making sure he stayed there. Much has been made of Hellyer's bitterness at his own wartime service - compulsory re-musters, etc - and I think they did play a role in fuelling his distrust of the senior officers and strengthening his faith in Lee, who had his own axes to grind.
LGen Geoffrey Walsh (late RCE) was almost the 'perfect' worst choice to serve near Hellyer and Lee - he was a rough, tough, gruff man who inspired fear more than any other emotion in subordinates; he was, probably, everything Hellyer (and many other politicians and bureaucrats) hated about the 'old' army. The navy, I think, was even worse: snobbish, pseudo-British to the core. In official Ottawa - Mike Pearson's Ottawa (Trudeau was not yet a power) - there was a perceived requirement to remake Canada in a new, less British, image. The other Royal Commission - B&B - had put that wind in every sail.
My guess is that Hellyer was impressed with what he heard in Washington: unification (as the Americans - correctly - understood the word) was solving, had solved many of the worst inter-service rivalry problems which, too often, paralyzed military decision making. It also cost less: there were fewer big, national headquarters and new inter-service agencies promised even more savings on common services.
"Let's do it! Let's integrate,â ? one can imagine Hellyer saying. One can also imagine Lee (and a few others) agreeing because integration goes way beyond unification - out to a new frontier - where things would really get shaken up and where reputations might just be made. Notwithstanding the highly (but briefly) publicized (ridiculed, actually) resignations of e.g. Moncel and Landymore, there were many senior officers in the CF, led by (newly minted) Air Chief Marshall Miller who thought integration (purple suiting) was a splendid idea.
The media was on Hellyer's side - Bill Lee was a highly skilled PR officer, after all - and the media moved public opinion on side, too.
There was one big problem: in all the fuss over integration the unification issue was put aside - for about 40 years. It used to get mentioned - my old boss (MGen H.C. Pitts (late QORofC)) used to pound the table on a regular basis but the inter-service rivalries which Hellyer had tried to diminish were stronger than even - despite everyone being in the jolly green jumper.
Problems were, in fact, exacerbated by lazy ministers who decided that they didn't want to do the hard work of sorting out the inevitable and healthy disputes between military chiefs with their ever increasing laundry lists of expensive requirements and the DM who is the keeper of the public purse. The unification (of sorts) of National Defence Headquarters forced an unnatural and highly ineffective partnership on the DM and CDS - they are now required to agree even when they cannot and should not. The effect is to paralyze decision making, yet again and even more, by allowing the minister to claim that matters are still under review when, in fact, they are simply stalled because neither the DM nor the CDS can give further ground.
Defence is an expensive business; there are limited ways to save; making the headquarters and the overall structure more efficient or cost effective was, and should always be a noble goal - it's always, without fail, better than cutting troops or failing to equip (adequately) the troops we have. That was the problem Hellyer set out to solve, I think. He and his minions ended up doing something else. Too bad.
