12

Short Feature

War Plan Red:

ll great powers have developed contingency plans industrial heartland in the states of the north-east.
A for war with each other, and the United States in
the early twentieth century was no exception. Each
Consequently, ‘our estimate of possible British attacks should
be the governing consideration in our peacetime preparedness
of Washington’s schemes was given a distinctive colour. Green program.’ 5
mapped out intervention in neighbouring Mexico, Tan the The casus belli of an Anglo-American conflict was judged
occupation of the US protectorate in Cuba. Brown dealt with to be ‘constantly increasing Blue (American) penetration and
insurgency in America’s colony, the Philippines, Yellow expansion into regions formerly dominated by Red trade,
mounted an expedition to China, Orange addressed a Pacific to such an extent as eventually to menace Red standards of
war with Japan. Plan Red orchestrated the American living and to threaten economic ruin.’ This remarkably
response to a showdown with Great Britain, or rather, with Leninist diagnosis concluded that Britain would therefore
nothing less than the entire British Empire.1 aim to eliminate America as a commercial threat ‘by
This article looks at its evolution in the 1920’s and 1930’s, destruction of Blue merchant marine and foreign trade, and
starting in August 1920, that is, not two years after America’s by acquisition of Blue overseas possessions, including control
involvement as Britain’s partner in the First World War. But by Red of the Panama Canal.’
rivalry had always underlain Anglo-American relations, so The focus of the British onslaught would be America’s
the military attache in London was told to discover whether war machine in the manufacturing cities of the North. From
Britain planned war with the United States, and to build up the Montreal-Quebec region of Canada (Crimson) would
a picture of British opinion on the issue.2 come an invasion designed to ‘capture or destroy Blue vital
The reply came back that Britain was irritated by America’s war-making industries’, coupled with sustained air strikes
insistence on full repayment of its war debt and by against ‘vital war industrial facilities and on centers of
Washington’s attitude of ‘splendid isolation and aloofness’. governmental, financial and industrial administration’, that
For the British, the attache concluded, ‘America is getting to is, Washington, New York and Pittsburgh. The same
be too serious a rival. England is convinced that she cannot objective of crippling US war potential would underlie
crush America, therefore she will try to block us at every attacks on the Great Lakes waterways which carried nearly
possible turn, and will endeavor to surround us with potential 90% of America’s iron ore to the smelters.7
enemies… . There is hardly a shadow of doubt that England Outside the continental USA the main British targets
is keeping up the closest and friendliest contact with Mexico, would be trade routes, the Panama Canal, American islands
Japan and South America and is gradually lining them up in the West Indies, and the Philippines, in an expedition
against us.’ 3 probably to be led by Australia (Scarlet). As its reward
The American riposte was slow to gather momentum, Australia would no doubt demand some or all of the
however. Not until December 1925 did the head of the Philippines archipelago, New Zealand would claim American
Army’s War Plans Division summon his men to action. ‘The Samoa, and Canada possibly the whole of Alaska. 8
important work before this Division is War Plan Red,’ he At the same time British propaganda was likely to be
proclaimed, ‘The most successful war plan ever conceived spread energetically throughout Latin America. The most
was dictated by its author in about two hours to a man who receptive republic would be Washington’s long-standing
took it down in longhand… . It was dictated by the great opponent Argentina, followed closely by Mexico, which had
master of the art of war and it resulted in the surrender of lost half of its territory to the United States in the war of
Ulm and the capture of Vienna.’4 1846. The Mexican government, it was predicted, would
Planning then went ahead, but not at Napoleonic speed. turn a blind eye to British agents stirring up anti-American
‘A war with Great Britain,’ stated an Army spokesman in feeling in order to tie down US troops on the Rio Grande.
February 1928, ‘seems highly improbable in the near future’, As for Central America, British Honduras, ‘if left intact’,
but it was important for the defence establishment to think would become hostile to the governments favourable to Blue
the scenario through. First, because British sea power was established in these countries.’9
the only force in the world capable of bringing home an Yet were the British really capable of fighting such a war?
attack to both the continental United States and to As one staff officer asked, for the British was it still the old
Washington’s far-flung dependencies in the Caribbean and strategy of muddling through — ‘vague and ill-considered
the Pacific. Second, because Canada — a Dominion of the policy, dissipation of resources, vacillation and compromise
British Commonwealth — was so close to America’s
 WAR PLAN RED 13

in the essential and ultimate thing, blind and bull-necked Canadians. At the same time the Irish could perhaps be
confidence in the means to the end’?10 moved to give ‘active support to an American Expeditionary
The planners thought not. Britain was assumed to have Force attempt to secure a base of operations on the Irish
made diplomatic arrangements in Europe to cover its back coast’. This idea, however, did not feature in the final plan.16
and allow a concentration of forces in the Atlantic. And, American victory was to come primarily through an
provided the Royal Navy retained control of the ocean, the invasion of Canada. Here, of course, Americans had had a
British were believed capable of producing almost everything certain amount of practice. Quite apart from the campaigns
they needed for the war effort, in spite of their dependence against the French in 1690, 1710 and 1759, there had been
on the United States for such critical items as cotton, copper assaults on Canada in both the War of Independence and
and oil. 11 the War of 1812. Invasion plans were drafted during the
Britain’s Navy, the Americans acknowledged, was a Oregon crisis of 1839-42, in the final year of the Civil War
formidable proposition. Forty days after the outbreak of of 1861-65, and during the Venezuelan imbroglio of 1896.
hostilities, the Admiralty could assemble at the Canadian In 1890 the influential naval strategist Captain Alfred Thayer
ice-free port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a Grand Fleet of no Mahan had war-gamed a suicide raid by sea on Halifax.
less than 14 battleships, four battle cruisers, 38 cruisers, five
aircraft carriers, 130
destroyers and 34
submarines. 12
The Red Army was
similarly impressive.
Sixty days after war
began, 148,000 British
reinforcements could be
expected to gather in
Canada, to be
supplemented by four
divisions from India, two
from Australia, and one
each from New Zealand,
South Africa and —
somewhat improbably
given Irish Anglophobia
— from the Irish Free
State. All told, some 2.5
million men, including
Canadians, could come
together on Crimson
soil. 13
In air power too, Red
was strong. Within 30 Map of North America circa 1939
days, 30 Royal Air Force Royal Geographical Society, London
squadrons could have
been shipped over by
cargo vessel, while 13 squadrons could be brought across Halifax also featured prominently in the Navy’s thinking
by aircraft carrier in only ten days. And these calculations in the 1920’s. The army was to dispatch 25,000 men by sea
did not include the planes of the RN’s Fleet Air Arm.14 to take the port and deny it to the British, thus preventing
As seen from Washington, then, the British were in a the entry of reinforcements into Canada. Simultaneously,
commanding position. If Red forces penetrated as far as Army planners envisaged a massive ground attack on several
Albany, capital of New York State, ‘the effect on the Blue fronts. A full field army was to muster east of Lake
industrial region and system of communication would be Champlain, with the seizure of Quebec and Montreal as its
far-reaching.’ 15 mission. To the west, three bridgeheads were to be lodged in
How did America aim to meet the threat? The ultimate Canada to protect Buffalo and the Niagara power
US objective was ‘the expulsion of Red from North and installations, Detroit, and the Sault Sainte Marie canal
South America … and the definite elimination of Red as a system. Another task force was designated to take Winnipeg
strong competitor in foreign trade’. In trying to reach it, and cut the Canadian-Pacific Railway. In all this the
Washington was on its own. The policy of diplomatic contribution of air and sea power was ancillary. The Army
isolation meant it had no allies, and there was only slender Air Corps was confined to the tactical support of ground
hope of pro-American sympathy in the British troops, while the Navy’s part was also secondary: convoying
Commonwealth and Empire. There might be a possibility the Halifax expedition; securing Halifax against a British
of revolt in India and opposition to Britain from French
14 Feature

counter-thrust; and providing back-up for the Army in the operations, and the planners were also bound to confess that
Great Lakes theatre. 17 the scope of the Army’s opening moves would be curtailed
Outside Canada, however, the navy expected to come into by serious deficiencies in supplies and equipment.22
its own. In the Far East it was to harry British trade in the The same held good of the Army Air Corps. In May 1926
China Sea. In the Atlantic it was to intercept Britain’s supplies the Air Service had submitted a grandiose scheme for a
of wheat and nickel from Canada and meat from Argentina. strategic air offensive aimed at the destruction of the
But the key field of operations was to be the Caribbean. Canadian Air Force, attacks on Canadian industry, the denial
Here, the Navy’s first care was the Panama Canal, the vital of all Canadian ports to Britain, the denial of air bases to
sea-link between America’s widely-separated seaboards. But Britain as far afield as Newfoundland and Greenland, and
it also had the immediate job of cutting off the flow of oil to the severing of Britain’s transatlantic communications. 23
Britain from Latin America. Then, if the campaign in Canada In truth, however, the Corps was not fitted to play a
went well, the US Marines were to seize Jamaica, the decisive part in any contemplated war. The 1926 proposals
Bahamas, Bermuda, Trinidad, St. Lucia and the nest of had contained an admission that the Air Corps possessed
subversion in British Honduras.18 few units ‘that can be employed to great advantage at the
This last project reflected Washington’s intense outbreak of war.’ Four years later, in the final plan, things
proprietary interest in Latin America. ‘It is of the utmost were no better, with the Corps described as ‘only a very weak
advantage’, the Plan declared, ‘to cultivate a feeling of Pan- force with which to meet a major emergency’. Earlier
American solidarity.’ Should there be local objections, ‘Blue estimates had freely forecast Royal Air Force raids on
should be prepared to exert military and naval pressure Detroit, Buffalo, Boston and New York and Fleet Air Arm
against recalcitrant Nations of Central America and West sorties against the East Coast. If they came, America was
Indies.’ Thus the infection of British influence would be obviously not equipped to repel them.24
quarantined. 19 It was this disclosure which first threw doubt on the
Looking to the closing stages of the war, the Army was advisability of a Halifax expedition. The main offensive, the
instructed to destroy all enemy forces in Canada and to Army believed, should be aimed at the Quebec-Montreal
occupy further critical areas: the Ontario Peninsula (seat of area. If that were captured, the British would find it very
one third of Canada’s munitions capacity); Sudbury (the sole difficult to re-take via the rugged terrain of northern Maine.
source of America’s nickel supply); and the Vancouver- This led the chief of the War Plans Division to question the
Esquimalt region. The Navy for its part was to extend raids assumption that the seizure of Halifax was vital, and in
on British commerce throughout the Atlantic and even February 1929 the director of Military Intelligence advised
perhaps to move into the Mediterranean.20 against the expedition on the grounds that the Royal Navy
But, the planners had to ask themselves, was the United would already be in place to meet it.25
States capable of carrying all this off? The answers were As a result the Halifax campaign was effectively cancelled.
disturbing. For the Navy, the chief concern was the fact that In the euphemistic words of the final plan, it would be
the Fleet was stationed on the Pacific coast as a deterrent to launched ‘in case the situation at the outbreak of war
what the Navy deemed the country’s chief enemy - Japan. It indicates the practicability of the operation’, and the decision
would therefore have to transit the Panama Canal before it rested with the President. One possible alternative was an
could be brought to bear in the North-West Atlantic. If close overland assault, but in the light of the Plan’s statement that
to the Canal it could make the voyage in eight days, but it Nova Scotia’s road and rail communications were ‘entirely
was accepted that to shift the Fleet in a hurry would probably inadequate for the operation of large forces’, this seemed
precipitate war and the risk of a British air strike on the unlikely. Another was the neutralization of Halifax by air
Canal’s vulnerable locks. If the Canal were blocked, the attack and the mining of its sea approaches, though given
concentration of the Fleet in the Atlantic would be severely the relative strengths of the opposing navies and air forces,
delayed. Secondly, the Navy simply could not function its chances too would be slim.26
efficiently in support of the Canadian invasion without With this major proviso War Plan Red was approved in
Halifax as a base, and as we shall see, the chances of taking the early summer of 1930 and issued in February 1931. Its
Halifax were not rated highly. Thirdly, the Navy was life was short. It was revised marginally in May 1935 and
compelled to admit that it could not prevent five of America’s during the winter of 1935-36 the US First Army
ten principal trade routes from being cut by the British and enthusiastically simulated the ground campaign against
that two more would be in dispute. Finally, the Plan predicted Halifax. But in reply to its report on the manoeuvres, the
that in the event of defeat in the Philippines, the ships of the Army Staff stated on 1 May 1936 that the Plan had been
Asiatic Fleet based there would either have to withdraw to placed ‘in low priority’. The following October it was
Pearl Harbor or disperse into the Indian Ocean and officially declared obsolete by the Chief of Staff, with the
eventually ‘work their way into the Atlantic.’ 21 directive that no action be taken towards its revision or
The Army too faced a host of problems. In the summer of replacement. 27
1930 the Regular Army in the continental United States had The reasons for its demise were twofold. First, Red had
a strength of no more than 102,700 officers and men. To been little more than a theoretical means of testing out the
provide the necessary manpower for the war the National War Department’s General Mobilization Plan of 1928, which
Guard militia of 175,000 would have to be mobilized, plus foresaw the creation of an army of no less than 4,600,000
the Organized Reserve of 120,000. But this would still leave men. As planning for Red had helped show, however, this
considerable shortages in the troops needed during initial was wildly over-ambitious, particularly in the straitened
 WAR PLAN RED 15

circumstances of the Depression. In 1936, therefore, the chief the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Leahy, could
of Staff ordered a sharp reduction in Army mobilization truthfully describe War Plan Red as ‘wholly inapplicable to
targets. 28 present conditions’. It included directives ‘which could be
More importantly, Red was made redundant by changing adapted to … any war in the Atlantic requiring a major
international conditions. In 1927 mutual antagonism over effort’, but when that war came, Britain and the United States
naval disarmament had led to feverish talk of an Anglo- were to be on the same side.30
American war, but in January 1938 Major-General Stanley
Embick wrote that developments since 1933 had made References
nonsense of the concept. He was speaking of the growth of 1. For an American perspective on the Plan, see William Braisted, ‘On the
Red and Red-Orange war plans, 1919-1939’, in Gerald Jordan (ed.), Naval
Nazi German influence in Latin America, which made the warfare in the twentieth century, 1900-1945: essays in honour of Arthur
defence of the Western Hemisphere the Army’s first priority. Marder, (London, 1977), pp167-185.
In that context the United States needed at the very least 2. United States National Archives, Record Group 165, Military Intelligence
Division, 242-31 of 26 August 1920; hereafter cited as MID.
Britain’s benevolent neutrality. The two countries wee also
3. MID, 242-31 of 30 January 1923.
thrown together by the aggressive Japanese challenge to both 4. United States National Archives, Record Group 165, War Plans Division,
their interests in the Far East. The US Navy had all along 2444-1 of 28 December 1925; hereafter cited as WPD.
taken the view that the real threat to America came from 5. MID, 242-31 of 11 February 1928.
Japan and had seen planning for Red as a futile diversion. 6. Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC, Navy Basic
Plan, Red, February 1931, paragraphs 1228, 1229, 1392 (d); hereafter cited
‘From beginning to end’, wrote one senior naval planner in as Plan, giving paragraph numbers.
May 1939, ‘this plan has had little validity. It has not been 7. Plan, 1278 (d), 1344, 1273, 1278 (a), 1274.
supported and it was largely useless work.’ 29 8. MID, 242-31 of 24 December 1925.
This now made Canada a potential partner in hemisphere 9. Plan, 1323 (f), 1324, 1326.
10. MID, 242-31 of 11 February 1928.
defence, not the springboard for invasion, and British
11. Plan, 1226. �IID, 242-31 of 24 December 1925.
seapower an important guarantee of American national
12. Plan, 1253
security, not the greatest menace to it. Writing on the eve of
13. Plan, 1250, 1244, 1249 (5).
King George VI’s visit to Washington in midsummer 1939,
14. Plan, 1265, Tables I and II.
15. Pl an, 1311
16. Plan, 1329 (c). WPD 2444-6 of 11 February 1928.

John Major is Reader Emeritus in History at the University of Hull. 17. Plan, 1391(a), 151 l(a), 1622(a) and (b), 1623(6), 1612(d), 1626(6),
2323, 2324, 1473(c), 1512(c).
His writings onAmerican history include The New Deal, The Oppenheimer
Healing and most recently Prize Possession: the United States and the 18. Plan, 1233, 1471(6), 1474, 1627, 1333, 2353(d), 1472(a) and (c).
19. Plan 1323(a), 1325, 1328.
Panama Canal 1903-19 79.
20. Plan, 1629, 2354(6), 2353(a)4.
21. Plan, 1368, 1315, 1342, 1343, 2417.
22. Plan, 1351(a), 1511(a) and (b), 1622(a) and (b), 1351(6) and (c). United
States National Archives, Record Group 407, Adjutant General of the Army,
381 of 23 June 1926; hereafter cited as AG. Plans 1357, 1358.
23. WPD, 2444-4 of 25 May 1926.
24. AG, 381 of 23 June 1926. Plan, 1351(a), 1355. WPD, 2444-5 of 22
December 1927.
25. MID, 242-31 of 27 May 1926, 9 September 1927 and 19 February 1929.
26. Plan, 1392(1), 2323, 1622(a), 1219(a), 1392(1), 2324(a)3.
27. Plan, 1219(a). AG, 381(1934), Red Plan, 1 May 1936. AG, 381 (10-12-
36).
28. Plan, 1352, 1511(1).
29. For a British expression of the war fever of 1927, see Joseph Kenworthy,
Will civilisation crash? (London, 1927), which has a chaprer on an Anglo­
American war. AG, 381 (1-27-38). Operational Archives, Naval Historical
Center, Washington, DC, Records of the Joint Board of the Army and Navy,
S.643, Cooke, 7 May 1939; hereafter cited as JB.
30. JB, S.643, Leahy to Joint Board, 25 May 1939.