Did the USA seriously intend to invade Canada in 1930 and take the land?

The nightmare. Canadians watching in surprise 

as they were invaded from the south

Americans have a history of underestimating Canadians. The animosity goes back to the War of 1812, when troops from the British colony of Canada marched to Washington D.C and burned down the White House. After that dis­astrous war, fighting between the U.S and Canada devolved into a series of border disputes. During the second war with Britain in 1812, Thomas Jefferson bel­iev­ed that it would be easy for U.S troops to occupy Canada. Yet attacks in the Old Northwest, across the Niagara River, all failed.

In the Civil War (1861), the U.S Navy arrested Confederate dip­lomats travelling to Britain on a British ship. Canada’s Governor General ordered troops to the border and the Brit­ish accused the U.S Secretary of State of instig­ating the affair to invade Canadian territory. Luck­ily they averted a military crisis.

Canada confederated in July 1867, but the new country’s fears of an American invasion continued. In 1869 Canada acquired the vast pos­sessions of the Hudson’s Bay Co., and within a decade the provinces of Manitoba & Prince Edward Island also confederat­ed. Britain took its troops home.

WWI gave America a place among the world’s most powerful nations and sent Canada’s fears upwards. So the Can­ad­ian military assessed their prepared­ness for another war, fought cl­oser to home. Canadian war hero Lieut Col Buster Brown was commis­s­ioned to create an anti-U.S war plan. Brown did an analysis along the New York and Vermont bord­ers and in 1921, published Def­en­ce Scheme #1. This was a 5-pronged surprise attack plan, design­ed to invade the U.S in fly­ing col­umns of troops across the border. They would occupy cities like Fargo, Portland, Niagara and Albany. And Maine would go back to Canada.

Only a pre-emptive strike could help Canada win a battle against its larger neighbour, with its far greater arsenal and manpower. Another advantage of the quick strike was that the war would be fought on American territory, so losses in civilian life and infrastructure wouldn’t be borne in Canada.

Meanwhile, American war planners feared that Britain would be chafing at the U.S’s new power and its insistence that Britain repay U.S war loans in full. Britain might launch an invasion south from Canada, whose foreign policy was still designed by Britain. The threat seemed so credible that the U.S War Dept asked the Joint Amy and Navy Board to come up with a good invasion plan of Canada. 

War Plan Red by Kevin Lippert.

Credit: Princeton Architectural Press

In any case, the U.S army began planning for wars with a variety of countries, soon after WW1. In the 1920s the U.S military Joint Army and Navy Board devel­oped colour-coded war plans that outlined poss­ib­le war strategies. Many war plans became known by the colour of the country to which they referred. As a dom­inion of Great Britain, Canada was loyal to the moth­er­land, and thus was included in the RED plan against any British invasion.

Drawn up in 1930 was War Plan Red, a plan to invade Canada and de­feat Britain on dominion soil, began with an attack by land and sea. It started with a naval blockade of Halifax, sending troop col­um­ns from Detroit and Albany to take Toronto and Montreal, and from Bell­ingham to capture Vancouver. Troops marching from Buffalo would take over Niagara Falls, disab­ling the Canad­ian power grid. The troop movements were devised by U.S aviation hero Charles Lind­bergh, the man who flew secret missions behind “enemy” lines to Canada’s Hudson Bay. Lindbergh recommended the use of chemical weapons.

Army planners anticipated that any war with Britain would be prol­onged, partially because of Brit­ish and Canadian tenacity, and partially because Br­itain could draw men and resources from its huge empire including Australia and Ind­ia.

Different versions of the Invasion Plan of Canada were prop­os­ed, and one was approved in 1930 by the War Dept. It was up­dat­ed in 1934-5, but never implemented. Alth­ough it addressed some of Britain’s greatest strengths, a chief area of con­cern was the U.S’s long border with Canada.

With its vital naval base, military strategists planned a naval attack on British Columbia, launched from Washington. Successful occ­up­at­ion here would effectively cut off Canada from the Pacific.

As the hub of Canadian railway system was in Manitoba’s capital, Winnipeg, army strategists believed a land assault could be launched from North Dakota, thus neutralising Canada’s rails.

Military planners would take the Maritime Provinces with a poison gas attack on Nova Scotia’s cap­it­al Halifax, also home to a major naval base. This would be followed by a sea invasion, an overland invasion of New Brunswick. Nova Scotia’s valuable seaports would be isolated.

With a 3-pronged attack, arising from Buffalo, Detroit and Sault Ste Marie, the U.S would gain control of Ontario and the Great Lakes. In addition to crushing British supply lines, U.S could control most of Canada’s industrial production.

An attack would be launched from New York and Vermont. Con­trol of French-speaking Quebec, comb­ined with control of the Maritime Provinces, would stop Britain from entry to the Eastern seaboard.

Although not declassified until 1974, parts of the War Red Plan were leaked in classified testimony to the House Military Affairs Committee and printed in New York Times, 1935. Soon a U.S government broch­ure revealed the planned airports were in fact milit­ary air fields. War Plan Red led to the largest war games ever, with 36,000 U.S soldiers at Fort Drum near the N.Y border. The Times also reported that the U.S Congress had assigned and spent $57 million in 1935, to build the three recommended air bases on the border.

War Plan Red acknowledged Brit­ain’s ability to fight on AND the report actually warned not to underest­imate the Mounties. Nonethe­less War Plan Red recomm­ended that the U.S invade Canada AND take over any conquered regions, adding them as American states.

Like Christopher Moore,  I will now ask what interests my Canadian friends. Read Kevin Lippert’s book The planned U.S invasion of Can­ada. War Plan Red (Princeton, 2015). Lippert concluded that the U.S was supposed to be friends with Canada, its largest trad­ing partner and war-time ally. But clearly the count­ries viewed each other as serious geopolitical foes, to be invaded.