America's Secret Plan to Invade Canada

In May 1930, two members of the American cabinet approved a secret plan for war with the British Empire. Almost all of it was about Canada: seize Halifax first, then Montreal, Quebec, Winnipeg and the power stations at Niagara Falls. In 1934 it was amended to allow poison gas "from the inception of hostilities", and it said Canada's provinces would become American states. It was called War Plan Red, and it stayed secret until 1974. It wasn't the first time. American armies marched into Canada in 1775 and in 1812. In 1859 the two sides almost went to war over a pig. In 1866 Irish-American veterans of the Civil War invaded across the Niagara River. And in 1921 a Canadian colonel, "Buster" Brown, wrote his own plan to invade the United States first, and drove through Vermont and New York in civilian clothes, photographing bridges. This is the true story of the border that almost disappeared. The Almost Atlas: true stories of worlds that almost were. CHAPTERS 0:00 The secret plan 1:26 I · Crimson (1930) 2:58 II · A Mere Matter of Marching (1775–1814) 5:53 III · A Squabble About a Pig (1859–1867) 8:24 IV · Buster Brown's Road Trip (1921) 10:14 V · Halifax First (1934–1939) 12:37 Epilogue SOURCES • Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan — Red (1930; declassified 1974), U.S. National Archives. Overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Pla... • Floyd Rudmin, "Plan Crimson: War on Canada. Secret War Plans and the Malady of American Militarism", CounterPunch (2006), quoting the plan and its 1934–35 amendments from the National Archives: https://www.counterpunch.org/2006/02/... • Peter Carlson, "Raiding the Icebox", The Washington Post (30 December 2005): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archiv... • Defence Scheme No. 1 (Lt-Col James Sutherland Brown, 1921): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence... • The invasion of Quebec, 1775–76: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasio...) · Benedict Arnold's expedition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedic... • Articles of Confederation (1777/1781), Article XI. • Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 4 August 1812 (Library of Congress): https://www.nps.gov/articles/a-mere-m... • The burning of Washington, 1814: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning... • The Pig War, 1859: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War...) • The Fenian raids, 1866–71: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_... • Franklin D. Roosevelt, address at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, 18 August 1938 · The Ogdensburg Agreement, 1940: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogdensb... • Maps: Natural Earth (coastlines, lakes, states and provinces). A note on numbers: accounts of the August 1935 war games differ (from about 36,000 to more than 50,000 soldiers), so the video says "tens of thousands". #History #WarPlanRed #Canada