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War Plan Red: America’s Secret Strategy Against the British Empire
Some saw the British, not the Germans or Japanese, as the real threat
War Plan Red sounds like a Cold War era strategy aimed at countering Communism. In actuality, it was a strategic plan aimed at fighting the British Empire during the Interwar Period (1919–1939). The idea that the United States would fight the British Empire in the days before World War II sounds preposterous, but it wasn't entirely out of the question.
World tension was building centered around Germany and Japan. There were many who thought that such tensions would put British and American trade at odds. The British were going through a period of appeasement toward Adolf Hitler and maintained fairly good relations with the Japanese. (Most people forget that the Japanese fought on the side of the British in World War I.)
The United States military system does extensive hypothetical planning in order to prepare for nearly any actuality. War Plan Red was one such plan that detailed the American response to war with the British. The plan detailed aggressive strikes against Canada in order to deny the British any military infrastructure close to American soil.
The plan was focused on five distinct phases that all targeted bases in Canada.
