Talk:War Plan Red

Anyone want to break the tie? Was it pure hypothetical or the real deal?
 * Can anyone provide me with the text of Defence Scheme 1? Albrecht 05:01, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Same question as Albrecht. Also, I'm not sure if it was Portland, Oregon or Portland, Maine (from the order listed in the article, and that Maine would be attacked by sea, I suspected the former was intended).  Antandrus 19:09, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122901412_3.html

The Canadian plan was developed by the country's director of military operations and intelligence, a World War I hero named James Sutherland "Buster" Brown. Apparently Buster believed that the best defense was a good offense: His "Defence Scheme No. 1" called for Canadian soldiers to invade the United States, charging toward Albany, Minneapolis, Seattle and Great Falls, Mont., at the first signs of a possible U.S. invasion.

"His plan was to start sending people south quickly because surprise would be more important than preparation," said Floyd Rudmin, a Canadian psychology professor and author of "Bordering on Aggression: Evidence of U.S. Military Preparations Against Canada," a 1993 book about both nations' war plans. "At a certain point, he figured they'd be stopped and then retreat, blowing up bridges and tearing up railroad tracks to slow the Americans down."

Brown's idea was to buy time for the British to come to Canada's rescue. Buster even entered the United States in civilian clothing to do some reconnaissance. Xerex 23:31, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

The Ninetenth Century
Para 3 of the article includes the sentence: "Although an Anglo-American war had been a real possibility in the nineteenth century, the likelihood of this declined substantially following the turn of the century".

I'm no expert, but this can't be right when a link at the bottom of the page goes to 'The War of 1812'. Surely 1812 is also in the nineteenth century ? 84.130.117.18 21:22, 25 May 2006 (UTC)


 * It should read "late 19th century". There was a very real possibility of war in the 1880's and 90's. Nik42 06:27, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Anglo-Japanese Alliance indicates it ended in 1923 so what was the US concerned about in 1935. Unless they were daft, the US planners should have known there was no UK - Japanese alliance in the the 1930s. Hmains (talk) 05:13, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

It wasn't a real plan
Wasn't it procured by a bunch of war strategists at various military academies across the states and was purely hypothetical? At least that is what it stated in the report. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.35.102.202 (talk) 15:35, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * All war plans are hypothetical until the first shots are fired. Although few at the War Dept. may have believed it would ever come to that, there were prominent Americans such as Lindbergh suggesting a US-German strategic alliance, and the US and UK had non-trivial conflicts of national interest. The article doesn't do a great job of putting this in context. --Dhartung | Talk 05:00, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Rest of the British Empire
Should the rest of it be coloured in or where they not part of the plan? 86.176.32.247 (talk) 19:34, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

__Newfoundland__ During the 1930's, Newfoundland was administered directly from London, why is it included as part of Canada on the map? Surely it should be the same colour as Great Britain and NI. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.169.11.140 (talk) 06:13, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * the map dis need some work but I do not know how to do that, dis anyone else know how do it and have the time?--Lord Don-Jam (talk) 14:23, 11 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I Have created a new map, featuring the then parts of the British Empire, and added Newfoundland under the colour of Great Britain (user:Geord0). 22:19, 17 September (UTC)

Cool Stuff
Here in the UK we just aired a documentry all about "War Plan Red". Senior Military experts,Military War Planners,Historians etc etc from all across the world got together and sifted through all the United States documents,tactics EVERYTHING and were able to tell us what would have happend if War Plan Red had of taken place. It was realy cool stuff,im going to be uploading it to Youtube when i get chance....will it be able to be used as a source to add more coolness facts to this page? =D

I uploaded it here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4hjyyrpiKQ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.29.25.59 (talk) 19:21, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

Citations Required
This entire article is seriously lacking in citations. Furthermore, in-text citations are not appropriate for a historical article. Any notation should be done using end notes, even if it is in reference to a direct quote. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.35.112.90 (talk) 23:05, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

The map
Shouldn't the Philippines also be blue since it was part of America? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.126.210.25 (talk) 01:09, 26 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes. The Philippines were not independent until 1946. (92.7.9.163 (talk) 14:08, 4 June 2013 (UTC))

Edit on February 12 2014
Got rid of a wiki page link to "War Plan Red-Orange" as the Wiki page didn't exist. Added a wiki page link to "Britain". Added a wiki page link to "Western Hemisphere".

TheInformativePanda (talk) 02:56, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Edit on February 12 2014
Got rid of a wiki page link to "War Plan Red-Orange" as the Wiki page didn't exist. Added a wiki page link to "Britain". Added a wiki page link to "Western Hemisphere".

TheInformativePanda (talk) 02:56, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

British Strategy For Invasion of the United States
Just a quick question, re this sentence: Royal Navy officers generally believed that if war did occur, they could transport an army to Canada if asked, but nonetheless saw it as impossible to defend against the much larger United States,. Can we obtain a cite because that seems factually incorrect, at that time the Royal Navy was by far the largest navy in the world, I believe in the case of the United States it was equivalent to three RN front line ships for every one American vessel. However, I am not well versed in naval history so please, if I have got that wrong please advise. Twobells''t@lk 18:21, 15 August 2015 (UTC)
 * The Royal Navy might well have been able to defeat its American counterpart, but British war planners at the time believed Canada would fall to a land invasion regardless of any action they took. I think that's what this refers to, rather than sea operations. Rwenonah (talk) 18:26, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Muddled introduction
"War Plan Red was not operationalized". What does that mean? "Operationalized" is not a military term that I am familiar with. "And did not have presidential or Congressional approval" is meaningless, military operational plans are not approved by either the president or congress. The statement that "The United States can only declare war in congress" is false and irrelevant. Congress declares war, the US does not "declare war in Congress". This was a plan, not an actual war!. And finally, "and in this period of U.S. history, it made no war plans" does not follow from the first part of the sentence, and is also wrong. The US prepared many theoretical war plans, including this one! This article needs drastic revision.Royalcourtier (talk) 08:02, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

Confused strategy
The article has left me confused. The US is said to retain its traditional defensive strategy. Yet the plan looks offensive to me. It was anticipated that there would be an invasion from Canada as a "retaliatory" invasion of the United States. Despite this Britain would fighting a defensive battle against invading American forces....Royalcourtier (talk) 08:08, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

When was it abandoned
If in 1939 the USA decided to retain its plans for a war with the UK, when did the USA actually drop these plans? Or did they? Were there similar plans for a war with Germany?Royalcourtier (talk) 08:09, 27 December 2015 (UTC)
 * War Plan Black for Germany. Post 1939, UK + USA became allies i.e. they dropped war plans against each other. Bosley John Bosley (talk) 12:19, 29 October 2021 (UTC)