Invasion of Canada. Bombing raids on British industrial interests. Naval blockade. Chemical weapons. Six million troops fighting on the Eastern seaboard. This wasn’t a crazy Nazi plan. It was the United States’ strategy to destroy Britain as a world superpower.
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)]