It was very real. Its name was War Plan Red. Developed during the 1920s, it was approved by the US Secretary of War and the Secretary of Navy in May 1930. In fact, it was active until Hitler decided to invade Poland with his bloody pal Stalin. The plan wasn’t declassified until 1974. Now, a new documentary by Channel 5 America’s Planned War On Britain: Revealed, shows how this plan became to be alongside other plans that called for war against Mexico (War Plan Green), Japan (Orange), China (Yellow) and even domestic uprising (White).
Unlike the other colour-coded plans, however, the US Congress approved $US57 million for War Plan Red. This money was used to build three military airfields disguised as civilian airports on the Canadian border, which would be used to launch pre-emptive surprise strikes against Canadian air forces and defences.
The plan also included a detailed land invasion strategy — devised with the help of transatlantic flight hero Charles Lindbergh — the bombing of industries in Canada, the use of chemical weapons — which was designed by Army General Douglas MacArthur himself — and a naval blockade that would have kept the British Navy out of the conflict.
The objective of War Plan Red was to neutralize Britain as a worldwide imperial power, collapsing their trading routes. The US believed that the war with the British at the time, even after they briefly fought together during World War I. By the time that world was over, however, Britain owed the United States $US14 billion. With a Great Depression at home, the US population weren’t very fond of their former 1776 masters. In fact, the anti-British sentiment was quite strong at the time.
Fortunately — and unfortunately — a crazy dude by the name of Adolf Hitler decided to declare war on the world, and the US became best pals with the Brits, even while they still hate each other. A little bit. On the inside. Not as much as they hate the French and the Germans, though. [Channel 5, War Plan Red (Wikipedia)]
Sean Robert Meaney
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:00 AMIn what way did the War between the USA and the Commonwealth not happen? The USA has activly broken up the Commonwealth world wide – Has conducted bombings in Commonwealth Territory of Pakistan, Handed the Commonwealth territory of Palestine off as a Jewish State after WW1(we know how that is going), and is currently benifiting from the use of Singularity weapons on Commonwealth Citizens (considering they expand forward and backward through time from origin – that hasnt but will happen) and Siezed Hawaii which was a British Assett and woulld have been a Commonwealth Territory had it not.
EckyThump
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:32 AM“and is currently benifiting from the use of Singularity weapons on Commonwealth Citizens”
What the hell is a singularity weapon?
Luke
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:58 AMI think he may be trolling.
There is no such thing as a Singularity weapon, unless he is mistaken them for nuclear weapons.
There is more then one version of a singularity concept and its kinda hard to make out which one he is trying to go for.
EckyThump
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:50 AMYeah, I was thinking Nukes, but given the rest of the comment?… #]
Aliasalpha
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:43 AMIt sounds like something that should be described as [Dramatic Pause]… THE DEVICE!
Mick
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:00 AMThe US believed that the war with the British at the time, even after they briefly fought together during World War I.
Believed that the war what?
Ben Zemm
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:24 AMAre they referring to “the war” as “the bad guys”? Like Russia was “the bad guys” during the Cold War and now “the bad guys” are North Korea (does the Axis of Evil still exist?)
TD
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:12 AMProbably missing “was inevitable.
EckyThump
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:31 AMIf ever you need proof that the US is a Military/Police state, there you go! The sooner that country collapses under it’s own debt, the better! I know, I know! the stock Market will collapse and some bad shit will happen, but it will be worth it in the end! #}
peej
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:35 PMOh NOOOOO! watch it on the Shift key Ecky – that shiz be messin your styles!
AngrySamoan
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:40 PMSettle down on the hyperbole. Conflating a 1920s war plan (we have them too you know) with the U.S being a military/police state shows your ignorance of American history and inability to put that into context. In no way is the U.S a police state. I’d look at East Germany, Soviet Union and Nazi Germany as examples of true police states. Life’s been very good to you. Your comments are typical of the self satisfied, smug westerner, bloated on their own hubris. If the U.S economy collapses, we’ll be pulled down with it. What’s your contingency plan if that happens? How self sufficient are you? The smugness will be wiped from your face when you’re in the shit with everyone else, fighting for scraps. Be careful what you wish for bro.
Tibicen
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:25 AMObviously Mr Thump has put a lot of thought into his analysis of a post-American future, just as he’s thought deeply about the correct use of an apostrophe.
matt
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:46 AMand now the US owes like, 14 trillion dollars…
I wonder if China has a War Plan Redneck?
Jester
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:25 AMHA!!!
AnthonyP
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:04 AMInstead of having to go to war with the U.K. Germany did it for them and all the US had to do was stand back and suck them dry of all their funds. Make them bankrupt and then take over. Only the Japanese put a bit of a stop to that and forced the US to war.
attila
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:24 AMUnsurprisingly, it was the Canadians who were most put out when this came fully to light, as it largely consisted of an invasion of their country.
From an Oz perspective, its also worth bearing in mind that we would have almost certainly ended up in the war against the US as well.
Brasidas
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 12:28 PMThey had a plan against Australia called Scarlet.
All countries have these plans. Australia responded with War Plan Sepo…. whoops, said too much.
RB
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:27 AMEvery nations military would always be coming up with plans like this for every possible scenario, even today. It’s a good exercise in ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking and can prove quite useful when it comes to adapting these plans to a real situation that might arise without notice.
Mind you tho, the fact that they actually allocated money to get the ball rolling on their ‘hypothetical’ war with Canada, does enter a bit of a grey area.
ozoneocean
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 1:30 PMThey do, but this wasn’t a hypothetical exercise. It was much like the USA’s current plans to invade China and their old plans to attack the USSR: very real contingency plans that they actually put real resources and money into.
Straxus
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:49 AMSheesh, with friends like this, you don`t enemies! We should have sided with Hitler. He did, after all admire the British Empire and our rule of India. If it had happened, would the French have helped? So, this, “you`re our enemy one minute our friend the next,” isn`t a new thing? Like the way Gaddafi was The World`s Number One State Sponsor of Terror,” then he became Obama`s best buddy?
olearymo
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:54 PMshould have… sided with Hitler? Uh… hmmm…
TC
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 12:29 PMno no, it’s “with fronds like these, who needs anemones..”
Andrew
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 12:43 PMReally? After explaining that they had a plan (read: strategy, not intent) to attack/neutralise most of the developed world, don’t you think this is all just an exercise in prudency? Should the need arise, they have a plan, nomatter how likely or not the situation is.
olearymo
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 12:54 PMThey spent a lot of funding on the plan, and not on the others. I think that says a lot.
Osiris Fox
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 1:40 PMWell, consultants do need money to actually come up with these plans. They don’t work for free.
ozoneocean
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 5:18 PMAnd those airfields were part of their compensation package?
Hahahahahahaha!
olearymo
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:53 PMand the reason they didn’t spend money / hire consultants on the other plans?
ozoneocean
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 1:37 PMIt was a little more advanced than “just a plan”. But that’s nothing new- over the past century the USA has had very real plans and resources put into any number of invasion strategies… There’s still a lot of old mouldering crap left over from the cold war.
ozoneocean
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 1:33 PMThis was sound strategy- when you’re top-dog, or close to being top-dog you try and work out how to improve your position and neutralise any threats to it. Just like the invasion plans the USA had for the USSR during the cold war and like they have currently for China.
You can be damn sure that Britain had similar plans based on neutralising the USA at the time, just as the USSR once did and as China does currently.
RSG
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 1:45 PM“The US believed that the war with the British at the time, even after they briefly fought together during World War I.”
“By the time that world was over,….”
Spell/grammar check much, Mr. Diaz?
Ed
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 5:21 PMNo doubt this would have changed everything. Japan probably would have sided with Britain as a dominant US was not in either of their interest. Not to mention Australia at war with the yanks, scary shit.
Just another reason to hate Americans. But as mentioned, these contingencies are made by all governments. Australia would have one for a country the size of China/Russia and therefore the USA.
Apollo
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 5:38 PMI still think the commonwealth needs to work together on more issues, realistically, a common good is about the only thing that differentiates us from … well… The US.
Raevn
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 11:04 PMSaying that Britain had our “Common Good” in mind during either World War would be pretty naive. They repeatedly proved that they saw us as simply an expendable resource to protect Britain, even at the expense of our own county (note our troop and naval disposition when Pearl Harbour occurred, and just how difficult it was to retrieve our troops when we needed them in Papua New Guinea).
Cest Moi
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 5:56 PMVery poor penmanship. Just exactly was meant by the unfinished sentence
“The US believed that the war with the British at the time, even after they briefly fought together during World War I….”
Seems to me as poorly constructed a sentence as these stupid war game scenarios.
Get real folk! CHINA is the new USA!
Theophilus
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:28 AMPot calling the kettle black ? I am not a huge fan of your second sentence.
Chris
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 7:26 PMYeah that sentence is out of whack and the reason why, it’s been edited before release. Someone was on to Gizmodo so they had to spring clean the paragraph.
The spies are everywhere watch out.
With the so called Armageddon coming up in 2012 this kind of debate makes you think, lose lips sink ships, if you like.
Steve
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:27 PMJust some dusty old documents, let loose by the lefty anti-American media.
Quin
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 11:58 PMI got halfway through the article then quickly took a look at the by-line.
Suspicions were confirmed. “Their former 1776 masters”? Haha…
Nexus789
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 12:43 PMThe US Administration (no your average person in the US as they are brainwashed) are the most untrustworthy idiots in history. The British were planning for a conflict with the US prior to WW 1. It should have occurred.
Devious pricks that have plotted against, attacked numerous countries, killed and maimed millions. A pox on humanity.
Luke
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:44 AMNow… absolutely nothing but what if America decided to go ahead with its plan and Hitler decided to go ahead with the invasion of Poland? WWII might not have ended the way it did.
This i should stress this is hypothetical.
America and Britian would have been at war with each other and possibly have decimated each others defences to really fight effectively against the Germans and Japanese so then they could have won the war and no doubt would still be in power today and technological development might not have happened at all or if it did all technology would be Nazi brand.
Jeff
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:04 AMit’s a C&C script writers favourite pastime.
Aliasalpha
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:43 AMIn many ways sophisticated technology was something the nazis had a major edge in, good thing they never managed to get it into mass production