please log in to view this image At a length of 5,522 miles (8,891 kilometers), Canada and the United States share the longest non-militarized border in the world. Today we think of the two nations as the friendliest of neighbors, but at one time both nations had somewhat detailed plans for attacking one another… just in case. The U.S. plan was titled “Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan – Red,” and it included plans for the invasion of Canada by the United States as part of a larger worldwide military action. War Plan Red was actually designed for a war against England and it’s Commonwealth. The scenario imagined a conflict between England (code name Red) and the United States (Blue) fighting over vital international trade and commercial interests. The plan was devised by the U.S. military in 1934. In the event of such a military conflict, American planners assumed that England would use Canada (Crimson)– a part of the British Commonwealth– as a staging area for attacks on the United States. The Army had even researched which beaches the British might use for amphibious landings. The American military wasn’t going to ignore a possible Anglo-Canadian threat, so a strategy for a preemptive takeover was devised. The ninety-four-page document outlined plans for stopping British reinforcements by taking the port of Halifax, then seizing the hydroelectric power plants at Niagara Falls while the Navy blockaded Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific ports. The Navy would also take control of the Great Lakes. Special notice was made about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and how they were not a force to be taken lightly in a military action. Next the U.S. Army was to attack in force on three fronts – advancing from North Dakota towards Winnipeg, moving from Vermont to capture Montreal and Quebec, and moving from the upper Midwest to take over the nickel mines of Ontario. The plan also called for a convoy to travel up Route 99 to Vancouver, and for the British colonies in the Caribbean to be taken. The goal of the U.S. was not only to defeat Canada, but to claim it as a prize, as described in the document: “BLUE intentions are to hold in perpetuity all CRIMSON and RED territory gained. The policy will be to prepare the provinces and territories of CRIMSON and RED to become states and territories of the BLUE union upon the declaration of peace.” All of the plans were discovered at the National Archives when they were declassified in 1974. The original War Plan Red was one of many “color plans” developed as academic exercises in a War Department with too little to do in the 1920s and 30s. The plans were an outgrowth of the creation of the new U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Army War Plans Division. With the development of a planning capacity the Pentagon figured they should get some practice. As for the Canadians, they had their own plan outlining the invasion of the United States. Developed in 1921, it was called “Defense Scheme Number One,” and it called for Canadian soldiers to march on Albany, Minneapolis, Seattle and Great Falls, Montana. They were well aware that they lacked the military strength to defeat the U.S., so the thrust of the plan was to buy time for the British to arrive and help their commonwealth ally. The department in Canada responsible for war planning had an annual budget of just $1,200. During the clandestine information-gathering for Defense Scheme Number One, staff members of the department actually entered the United States to take photographs and to procure free maps at gas stations. Even though these war plans were just wildly imaginative speculation, there have been real invasions of Canada by Americans in the past. During the Revolutionary War, General Benedict Arnold led a failed attack on Canada, and during the War of 1812 U.S. troops attacked Canadians several times, but were driven back. In 1839, Americans and Canadians met in a deadly confrontation over a border dispute… it cost the life of one American cow and a Canadian pig. In 1866, about eight hundred Irish-Americans in a group called the Fenian Brotherhood tried to make a statement for Irish independence by invading Canada to agitate the English. After crossing the Niagara River into Ontario they defeated a small group of Canadian militia. But when the British approached with a large force of troops, the Fenians mostly retreated back to the United States, where they were arrested. Some were captured by the Canadians and were eventually hanged. Today some Canadians are still sensitive to talk of an American takeover. The two countries have at least four unresolved border disputes. In 2003 the Canadian Army set up an Internet chat room where citizens could discuss military issues. The Ottawa Citizen reported: “One of the hottest topics on the site discusses whether the U.S. will invade Canada to seize its natural resources. Many individuals stated that if the such an attack did come, Canada could rely on a scorched-earth policy similar to what Russia did when invaded by Nazi Germany.” Regardless, within years of the development of War Plan Red, Canada and the United States were allies in World War 2. Eventually both nations developed a common defense strategy for North America and both were charter signers in NATO. For Americans, Canada has secured it’s place in the “Axis of Congeniality,” and today the U.S./Canadian border has the largest number of legal crossings of any border in the world. So you might wonder, is there an up-to-date 21st Century War Plan Red hidden away some obscure Defense Department office? When asked if such a plan existed today, a spokesman for the Pentagon said, “We don’t acknowledge which countries we have contingency plans for. We don’t acknowledge any of our contingency plans.”
No there was a programme on channel 5 about it last night and I thought it was very interesting. Reading up about it there it gave an insight into USAs list of possible war plans. War Plan Black A plan for war with Germany. The best-known version of Black was conceived as a contingency plan during World War I in case France fell and the Germans attempted to seize French possessions in the Caribbean Sea or launch an attack on the eastern seaboard. War Plan Gray Dealt with invading the Portuguese Azores. War Plan Brown Dealt with an uprising in the Philippines. War Plan Tan Intervention in Cuba. War Plan Red Plan for Great Britain (with a sub variant Crimson Plan for Canada). War Plan Orange Plan for Japan. War Plan Yellow Dealt with war in China - specifically, the defense of Beijing and relief of Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War. War Plan Green Involved war with Mexico or what was known as "Mexican Domestic Intervention" in order to defeat rebel forces and establish a pro-American government. War Plan Green was officially canceled in 1946. War Plan Indigo Involved an occupation of Iceland. In 1941, while Denmark was under German occupation, the US actually did occupy Iceland, relieving British units during the Battle of the Atlantic. War Plan Purple Dealt with invading a South American republic. War Plan Violet Covered Latin America. War Plan White Dealt with a domestic uprising in the US, and later evolved to Operation Garden Plot, the general US military plan for civil disturbances and peaceful protests. Parts of War Plan White were used to deal with the Bonus Expeditionary Force in 1932. Communist insurgents were considered the most likely threat by the authors of War Plan White.
Now that I think about it... Should we fear zombies or should we only fear extremist zombies And calling a zombie a moderate zombie must imply that a regular zombie is dangerous This is wrong
If there was a zombie invasion, I would just pretend to be a zombie and thus escape the clutches of the vile beasts
I think you'll find the Equalies Act recently passed in Parliament is designed to ensure equal rights for zombies in the workplace. And looking around me now at my colleagues, I'd have to say they're well provided for.
