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With talk of aggressive tariffs and President Donald Trump's desire to annex Canada, it's as good a time as any to look at the United States' plan, devised in 1930, to invade Canada—including Detroit's dear neighbor, Windsor.
Former Washington Post reporter Peter Carlson revisits a story he wrote for the Post in 2005 on the invasion, titled "War Plan Red," created by the U.S. Department of War.
In a just-published story in SpyTalk, Carlson writes:
In 1930, the U.S. crafted a top-secret plan to invade Canada... Amid rising tensions today—and as crazy as it sounds—the Trump administration may well be dusting off its own version.
Carlson writes that he discovered the plan in 2005 at the National Archives after asking someone there what was the weirdest document he'd seen in 50 years.
"He did not hesitate even a second before replying, 'War Plan Red,'" Carlson writes, adding that the plan is more than 90 pages long. It was updated in 1934 and 1935.
Detroit Windsor Tunnel (Photo: Michael Lucido)
Carlson notes that the plan was actually drawn up with the thought that the U.S. might one day go to war with England due to intense conflicts over international trade. The U.S. was concerned that England might use Canada as a launching pad and that British and Canadian troops might attack Buffalo, Detroit, and Albany.
Carlson writes that the U.S. plan included:
►A joint Army-Navy overseas force capturing the port city of Halifax, cutting the Canadians off from their British allies.
►Seizing Canadian power plants near Niagara Falls.
►The U.S. Army invading on three fronts—marching from Vermont to take Montreal and Quebec, charging out of North Dakota to grab the railroad center at Winnipeg, and storming out of the Midwest to capture the strategic nickel mines of Ontario.
►The U.S. Navy seizing the Great Lakes and blockading Canada's Atlantic and Pacific ports.
