https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red

This scenario was declassified in 1974, and was just a hypothetical study. The Daily Mail, in its dubious wisdom, has resurrected this for reasons know only to whoever decided to publish this.

It was never a real plan of action - just an exercise in planning.

Nothing new here. Just rabble-rousing.

LOL

It would make a plausible scenario - it was a Nazi plot, to have the US take out Britain before Germany began their European war.

Hell, it would be a great novel and/or movie! You could work in all kinds of wealthy and famous people - Lindbergh, Prescott Bush, Henry Ford, etc. Tie it into the Business Plot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot) to overthrow the government, make Smedley Butler the hero and you've got the perfect plot for an Oliver Stone movie! A few facts, a smidge of historical film and photos, some real people, and a lot of fantasy.

Even Canada. The more unstable countries get updated more frequently, stable allies much less frequently. IIRC there are even plans for zombie attacks and alien invasions...not that they're a realistic threat, but just for practice making plans.

It was called Defence Scheme One

decided to send ground troops into the U.S. Agyer seeing that first map I am even less worried. They think the Twin Cities are located in southern Iowa and Fargo is in South Dakota.

During the inter-war period, the US had operational plans to outline potential U.S. strategies for a variety of hypothetical war scenarios. These were known as the Rainbow Plan (as each country received its own, unique color, e.g. Mexico=Green, Japan=Yellow, etc).

The plan that received the most consideration was War Plan Orange, a series of contingency plans for fighting a war with Japan alone, outlined unofficially in 1919 and officially in 1924.

Many of the war plans were extremely unlikely given the state of international relations in the 1920s, and were entirely in keeping with the military planning of other nation-states. Often, junior military officers were given the task of updating each plan merely to keep them trained and busy (especially in the case of War Plan Crimson, the invasion of Canada).

During the early half of the 19th century, the Army and the Navy produced various "color" plans for contingencies.

Each country was designated with a color as the cover.

Black = Germany
Blue = United States
Brown = Philippines
Carnation = Manchukuo (Manchuria)
Cerise = British India
Crimson = Canada
Gold = France
Gray = Caribbean islands and Central America
Green = Mexico
Maroon = Italy
Olive = Dutch Indies (Indonesia)
Orange = Japan
Pink = Russia
Purple = Brazil
Red = Great Britain
Scarlet = Australia
Tan = Cuba
Violet = Latin American Intervention
White = US internal disturbance
Yellow = China

War Plan Orange was war with Japan

Orange was pretty much a Navy exercise with the Army having a small role and Green was primarily Army.

The US exercised War Plan Red a lot in the 1920s and early 1930s because Red was the only plan with full roles for both the Army and the Navy. The Navy would be fighting the ships of the Royal Navy while the Army would be fully occupied invading Canada. This was the primary tool of instruction at the War Colleges. The Naval War College also exercised the hell out of Orange and the Army War College did Green, Gray, and Purple.

In the late thirties with the prospect of global war being more likely, the services developed the Rainbow Plans which were used in WWII.

The plans, revealed in a Channel 5 documentary, were one of a number of military contingency plans drawn up against a number of potential enemies, including the Caribbean islands and China. There was even one to combat an internal uprising within the United States.


Thank you for the heads-up, Malraiders! This is a fascinating history that is not well known, but sheds light on the ways of Empire.