tsubame

American Invasion of Canada!

I found this article in the Vancouver Sun, December 31. It was originally published in the Washington Post. It was called “A not-so-secret plan of attack.” This is my summary of the article.

The United States government contrived a plan to invade Canada back in 1930 and it was called “Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan – Red.” It was updated in 1934 and 1935 and was stamped with SECRET on the cover. By 1974 the plan became declassified and is now in a box at the National Archives, where copies can be made at 15 cents a page.

Why would the U.S. want to invade Canada? During the 1920s, the United States was preparing for war scenarios with various countries, including Great Britain. Americans figured that since the U.S. was becoming a powerful economic rival, the RED (Great Britain) might consider eliminating the BLUE. They figured England would use Canada as a launching pad for attack. The quote in the article refers to Canada as a “quasi-pseudo-semi-independent British dominion” at the time. An invasion force was expected to come from overland, attacking Buffalo, Albany and Detroit. They were also worried that the British troops could be reinforced by troops from other colonies. It was feared that if CRIMSON (Canada) won the war they could demand Alaska. However, Americans wanted to avoid this and thus the plan for invasion was drawn up.

The American attacks would start with a joint army-navy force taking Halifax, cutting Canada off from Britain. Then they would seize power plants at Niagara Falls. The army would march in from Vermont to Montreal and Quebec, from North Dakota to take Winnipeg and gain control of the railway centre, and from the Midwest to take the nickel mines of Ontario. The navy would seize the Great Lakes and blockade Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic ports. Their plan was to “gain complete control.” Once Canada’s provinces and territories were under American control, the U.S. had plans to annex them. At the signing of the peace treaty the Americans would make Canada a permanent part of the United States.

So, how would Canada deal with such an invasion today? In Winnipeg, the mayor says Canadians would stand tall and fight with their many weapons, which include “peashooters, slingshots, and snowballs.” The worst of the Winnipeg arsenal is the winter. The temperatures can get down to –50 with the wind chill. “It will be like Napoleon’s invasion of Russia,” jokes the Winnipeg mayor.

But we have an invasion plan of our own. Oh, yes. In 1921, we already had a plan for invading the U.S. “Defense Scheme No. 1” would have us invading the States, heading for Albany, Minneapolis, Seattle and Great Falls in Montana. If the Americans showed signs of considering an invasion we would send in people quickly and catch them by surprise. Of course, we expected that eventually we would be stopped and then we would retreat, blowing up bridges and railways along the way to slow down the invading American forces.

A fellow named Floyd Rudmin, a psychology professor, did some research and even went into the U.S. to take pictures and pick up free maps from gas stations to see how Canada might best invade. He found out more from “War Plan Red” and saw the Americans had already chosen the best routes for attacking. Route 99 north from Seattle was decided as the best way over land into Vancouver. The Americans also planned to build three military airfields near the Canadian border and disguise them as civilian airports. In 1935, the secret was somehow leaked by mistake and the Canadian government protested. They do, however, have Fort Drum, a base located just across the Saint Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario. This might be the official American launching pad of an invasion should they find a reason to invade us. Some have said that even though we have a much weaker military, our immense land and extreme cold winter temperatures could buy us time and allow us to hold off the Americans longer than they would expect. One wag also pointed out that we have plenty of Canadians infiltrating American society. Celine Dion and Mike Meyers are there, awaiting orders. Americans had apparently planned for this, however, as they were well aware of the large number of British subjects and Canadian citizens living in the United States of America. Those undesirables would be deal with, probably sent off to camps like the Japanese.

The idea of Americans invading Canada is nothing new. A companion article points out that Americans invaded Canada for the first time during the American Revolution from Maine, but they failed. During the War of 1812 the Americans invaded Canada several times but were driven back each time. In 1866, some 800 Irish Americans invaded Canada by crossing the Niagara River and successfully defeated a Canadian militia. But when the British troops arrived they fled back to the U.S. and many were arrested. The article then says, “After that, Americans stopped invading Canada and took up other hobbies, such as invading Mexico, Haiti, Nicaragua, Grenada and, of course, Iraq.”

But Americans can still dream and they do in movies and on TV. “Canadian Bacon,” a Michael Moore movie, was about the American President (played by Alan Alda) trying to boost the economy by starting a war with Canada. Who can forget his battle cry, “Surrender pronto or we’ll level Toronto?” In the South Park movie, Americans go to war with Canada. In return, Canada bombs the Baldwin brothers’ house in Hollywood. A somewhat tongue-in-cheek article appeared in the magazine National Review entitled “Bomb Canada: The Case for War.” The author suggested that the United States “‘launch a quick raid into Canada’ and blow something up ‘perhaps an empty hockey stadium.’ That would cause Canada to stop wasting money on universal health insurance and instead fund a military worthy of the name, so that ‘Canada’s neurotic anti-Americanism would be transformed into manly resolve.’”

There are many web sites about an American invasion of Canada. One reason cited was to “make Alaska actually connected to the U.S. again!” My understanding is that it never was. The Americans bought it from the Russians. “Their surrender will come quickly, they’re French after all,” writes another contributor to a web site. There are even t-shirts, mugs and underwear being sold with “Uncle Sam wants YOU to invade Canada,” on them. It’s just a joke but why do Americans like joking about invading Canada? Because Americans see us as “goody-goodies,” the article states. We didn’t rebel against the British. We didn’t have a Wild West (well, we did but on a much smaller scale) and settled our land without gun fights which “make for good movies.” And we like to heckle the U.S. for bad behaviour. To the Americans, we are “just a bunch of boy scouts.”

So there you have my summary of the article. If you want to know more you can probably search for some of these points on the Internet. I just figure Paul Martin shouldn’t be so quick to implement stricter gun control if he doesn’t know what the Americans are planning.

Posted by tsubame at January 10, 2006 08:41 PM | TrackBack