WHAT IF...THE USA HAD LAUNCHED AN INVASION OF CANADA?

If War Plan Red had gone ahead, American troops would have marched on British imperial interests in North America and the Atlantic

- WORDS JONATHAN O'CALLAGHAN

What was War Plan Red?

War Plan Red was one of a myriad of schemes that got developed by the US War Department in the late 1920s. There was War Plan Red, which was the destruction of the British Empire, but there were other colours that involved changing the regimes in Japan, Africa and many European countries. When carrying out my research, I found two copies of the actual documentation and followed it right the way through from there. I think this accidentally got declassified, as I explain in my book [The Secret US Plan To Overthrow The British Empire]. I stumbled across the entire War Plan Red thing primarily by accident.

Can you briefly outline the plan?

The basic concept of it was that America invaded the Caribbean and Canada. That would force a reaction from the British Empire that would bring out the Royal Navy, which the US Navy would be prepared to attack and destroy. If they destroyed the Royal Navy, that would remove the British Empire's links and protection around the world. In the 1930s [Britain] had commercial links down through the Horn of Africa and around the Cape. The British even had commercial roots out to the Far East and to Australia and New Zealand. If you destroy the Royal Navy it removes the protection to these areas.