Between World War I and World War II, the isolationist United States devised a plan to dismantle the British Empire (or Commonwealth) rather than get involved in another European war.
quote:In War Plan RED, the US Army's theatre of operations is defined to be: "All CRIMSON territory" (p.80), and the US Army's mission, in bold type: ULTIMATELY, TO GAIN COMPLETE CONTROL OF CRIMSON (p.84). CRIMSON is the colour code for Canada. War Plan RED was amended in 1934 to authorize the immediate first use of poison gas against Canadians and to use strategic bombing to destroy Halifax, Montreal, and Quebec City if they could not be captured.
On this page on "Cognitive History", there's a list of preparations for an actual invasion in 1935:
quote:{excerpted}
January 19, the War Department announces that Pine Camp on the border south of Ottawa would be doubled in size (65).
February 4, Brig.-Gen. Kilbourne orders a secret reconnaissance mission into the Labrador and Hudson Bay regions to look for hidden Canadian air bases (66).
February 20, the War Department announces that it will hold the largest peace-time manoeuvres in U.S history at Pine Camp (68).
March 6, Gen. Douglas MacArthur recommends that War Plan RED be amended "to initiate, when the situation permits, offensive operations to secure the Winnipeg and Vancouver Areas" (69).
April 15, the U.S. Army and Navy announce intentions to hold large-scale, coordinated military manoeuvres (70).
April 28, "secret" military testimony from the February Congressional hearings is released by mistake, revealing that the Army Air Force is requesting funds for three new air bases for war on Canada (71).
April 30, the U.S. Under Secretary of State gives a speech praising the demilitarization of the Canadian border (72).
May 1, President Roosevelt denies that the U.S. has plans for war against Canada, or against any other country (73).
May 9, the Secretary of War and Secretary of Navy approve MacArthur's amendments for operations against Winnipeg and Vancouver (74).
June 6, the House approves the bill to build new air bases on the Canadian border (75).
June 9, U.S. Army reports it is examining Maine, New Hampshire, and Northern New York for sites for new air bases (76).
June 29, the U.S. Army announces additional soldiers for military bases, including Madison Barracks and Plattsburgh Baracks near the border south of Ottawa and Montreal (78).
August 9, equipment and troops begin arriving at Pine Camp near the border south of Ottawa for the largest peace-time mobilization manoeuvres in U.S. history (80).
August 10, President Roosevelt signs into law the air base appropriations bill (81).
October 3 and 5, posted as vice-consuls to Vancouver, respectively, are Douglas MacArthur, Jr. (83) and Carl Walther Strom (84), both of whom continue in careers as espionage agents during WWII and the Cold War.
November 15, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister King work out a plan for tariff reductions designed to achieve free trade (86).
December 1, U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Norman Armour, gives a speech praising the demilitarization of the Canadian border (87).
(Note: I like the idea of "cognitive history": quote:Thus, it might be hypothesized that the normal psychological processes of perception and misperception that operate when we think about individual people also operate when we think about nations. A remembered national history is a socially constructed memory of a nation's "personal" behavior. Our cognitive schemas, whether of persons or of nations, are built from beliefs and are routinely wrong, maybe for similar reasons.) |
