[Salon] Trump’s Proposed Annexation, Déjà Vu. U.S. 'War Plan Red' against Canada (1930-1939)

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

https://michelchossudovsky.substack.com/p/trump-proposed-annexation-canada-deja-vu?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1910355&post_id=176741777&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=210kv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Trump’s Proposed Annexation, Déjà Vu. U.S. 'War Plan Red' against Canada (1930-1939)

Bombing of Vancouver, Halifax, Montreal and Quebec City Contemplated

Michel Chossudovsky

[This article was first published by Global Research. You can read it here.]

Introduction

January 20, 2025: The Inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

As “Leader of the Free World”, Donald Trump’s twisted narrative was for Canada to join “MAGA America” and for Justin to be nominated as Governor of the 51st state.

It started as a joke at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, which unfolded into bitter laughter.

There are historical precedents which are the object of this article.

Both Donald Trump’s statement as well as the response by the Prime Minister of Canada border on ridicule.

PM Justin Trudeau’s failure to respond in his capacity as Canada’s “head of government” was marked by ignorance regarding the history of Canada-U.S. relations in the so-called interwar period, namely a plan to invade Canada entitled War Plan Red, which has been excluded from Canadian history books.

Another important period in our history pertains to the militarization of North America under US Northern Command (USNorthCom) which was announced by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 (addressed in a separate article).

The issue of Annexation as well as the plan to invade Canada (War Plan Red) has been on the drawing board of the U.S. War Department since the end the First World War.

Video: The U.S. “War Plan Red” against Canada (1924-1939)

Michel Chossudovsky’s Message to Fellow Canadians

Click here to watch the video.

1. What Canadians Know: British North America Act. Confederation (1867)

Most Canadians are fully aware of the U.S. intent to annex several territories of British North America culminating with the defunct 1866 Annexation Bill, not to mention the Alaska Purchase in May 1867, two months prior to The Enactment of the British North America Act, leading to the creation of the Dominion of Canada. Confederation on July 1st, 1867.

The Bill to Annex Canada was introduced in 1866, While it was not adopted by the House of Representatives, the text of the bill was nonetheless a draft of an invasion plan. It was to come into force upon its proclamation by US president Andrew Johnson. It included the territories of British North America from Newfoundland and the Maritimes to British Columbia, extending North into the Hudson Bay territory and North West Territory bordering onto “Russian America” (i.e., Alaska) (see map below).

It consisted in the outright confiscation of public lands. It also implied US control over the trans Canada railway system, waterways, canals as well as control over the Saint Lawrence seaway.

The US government had also contemplated paying “compensation” to the Hudson Bay Company. This consisted essentially in a plan to confiscate the territories under H.B.C jurisdiction (see map), “in full discharge of all claims to territory or jurisdiction in North America, whether founded on the charter of the [Hudson Bay] company or any treaty, law, or usage.”

The United States will pay ten millions of dollars to the Hudson Bay Company in full discharge of all claims to territory or jurisdiction in North America, whether founded on the charter of the company or any treaty, law, or usage. (Article XI)

The territorial division of British North America is outlined in the bill. The various constituent “Canadian states” would conform to US laws in setting up their legislature.

2. What Canadians Do Not Know. Omitted From Our History Books

While the 1866 Annexation project was stalled upon the adoption of the British North American Act in 1867, US plans to annex and/or invade Canada militarily were contemplated in the 1930s.

In the immediate wake of World War I, Washington’s intent was to undermine, destabilize and destroy the British Empire, an objective which was largely completed in the wake of World War II.

What has been omitted from our history books in schools, colleges and universities is that our American neighbour had envisaged to wage war on Canada. The U.S. War Department had drafted in the early 1920s a plan to Invade the Dominion of Canada (1921).

As of the mid-1930s, the war plans against Canada consisted in the bombing of Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax and Vancouver. The use of “poison gas” was part of that project.

3. “War Plan Red” Against Canada Under the Helm of General D. MacArthur

In the early 1920s, Washington formulated a detailed plan to invade Canada, entitled “Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan — Red”. The plan was approved by the US War Department under the presidency of Herbert Hoover in 1930. It was updated in 1934 and 1935 during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was withdrawn in 1939 following the outbreak of the Second World War.

War Plan Red was officially approved by the US War Department in May 1930. The 1928 draft stated that:

“it should be made quite clear to Canada that in a war she would suffer grievously”.

According to Floyd Rudmin. quoting the documents of the US War Department:

“If US war plans for the conquest of Canada provoke laughter, that is a comment on those who are laughing, not a comment on the war plans. In its day, War Plan RED was not meant to be funny.

The 1928 draft stated that “it should be made quite clear to Canada that in a war she would suffer grievously.”

The 1930 draft stated that “large parts of CRIMSON territory [Canada] will become theaters of military operations with consequent suffering to the population and widespread destruction and devastation of the country… “

1934, the Secretary of War and Secretary of Navy approved an amendment authorizing the strategic bombing of Halifax, Montreal and Quebec City by “immediate air operations on as large a scale as practicable.”

General Douglas MacArthur who subsequently led US forces in The Pacific during World War II, not to mention the conduct of the carpet bombing raids against North Korea (1950-1953) was actively involved in the planning of the invasion of Canada from 1930-1937. General MacArthur had been appointed U.S Army Chief of Staff in 1930.

The war plan was explicitly geared towards the conquest of Canada by the U.S.

“The U.S. Army’s mission, [written in capital letters], was “ULTIMATELY, TO GAIN COMPLETE CONTROL OF CRIMSON [Canada].”

The war plan directed against Canada initially formulated in 1924 was entitled “Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan — Red”.

According to Floyd Rudmin quoting the original war documents (link no longer functional).

“Though ostensibly for war against Britain Plan RED is almost devoid of plans to fight the British. The Plan is focused on the conquest of Canada, which was color- coded RED.

The 1924 draft declared that U.S.

“intentions are to hold in perpetuity all CRIMSON and RED territory gained… The Dominion government [of Canada] will be abolished.”

The US War Department acknowledged that this war was not against Britain. The strategic bombing of Halifax, Montreal and Quebec City was envisaged under Plan RED. Moreover, the US Army had been instructed (in capital letters),

“TO MAKE ALL NECESSARY PREPARATIONS FOR THE USE OF CHEMICAL WARFARE FROM THE OUTBREAK OF WAR. THE USE OF CHEMICAL WARFARE, INCLUDING THE USE OF TOXIC AGENTS, FROM THE INCEPTION OF HOSTILITIES, IS AUTHORIZED…” (quoted by Floyd Rudmin, op cit).

“In March 1935, General Douglas MacArthur proposed an amendment making Vancouver a priority [bombing] target comparable to Halifax and Montreal.” (Ibid)

[Image: Screenshot from the Daily Mail]

[Image: Screenshot from the Daily Mail]

4. “War Red Plan” to Invade Canada. SECRET Stamped on the Cover

The historical documents of Annexation (1866), Invasion of Canada “War Plan Red” (1930) and “War Plan Red” (1935) (95 pages) are contained in Annex II and III in my earlier article. War Plan Red, see also here

These documents are part of our history. It is important that “War Plan Red” (1930 and 1935) be firmly acknowledged and debated in schools, colleges and universities across the land.

Secretary of War Patrick J. Hurley (1929-33) was largely instrumental in the formulation and approval of Plan Red by the US administration.

The plan to invade Canada consisted of a 94-page document “with the word SECRET stamped on the cover. It had been formulated over a period of more than five years (See full text in Annex of my earlier article).

In February 1935, the [US] War Department arranged a Congressional appropriation of $57 million dollars to build three border air bases for the purposes of pre-emptive surprise attacks on Canadian air fields. The base in the Great Lakes region was to be camouflaged as a civilian airport and was to “be capable of dominating the industrial heart of Canada, the Ontario Peninsula” (from p. 61 of the February 11-13, 1935, hearings of the Committee on Military Affairs, House of Representatives, on Air Defense Bases (H.R. 6621 and H.R. 4130). This testimony was to have been secret but was published by mistake. See the New York Times, May 1, 1935, p. 1.

In August 1935, the US held its largest peacetime military manoeuvres in history, with 36,000 troops converging at the Canadian border south of Ottawa, and another 15,000 held in reserve in Pennsylvania. The war game scenario was a US motorized invasion of Canada, with the defending forces initially repulsing the invading Blue forces, but eventually to lose “outnumbered and outgunned” when Blue reinforcements arrive. This according to the Army’s pamphlet “Souvenir of of the First Army Maneuvers: The Greatest Peace Time Event in US History” (p.2). ( Professor F.W. Rudmin, Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Comments on “War Plan Red”, see complete text in Annex III)

One of the updates to the 1930 invasion plan was the use of chemical weapons against Canadian civilians:

“In 1934, War Plan Red was amended to authorize the immediate first use of poison gas against Canadians and to use strategic bombing to destroy Halifax if it could not be captured.” (Ibid)

It is worth noting that in the course of World War II, a decision was taken by the War Department to retain the invasion plan on the books. It was shelved. War Plan Red was declassified 35 years later in 1974.

The Washington Post, which casually dismissed the historical significance of “Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan — Red”, nonetheless acknowledged the aggressive nature of the proposed military endeavor:

“A bold plan, a bodacious plan, a step-by-step plan to invade, seize and annex our neighbor to the north. …First, we send a joint Army-Navy overseas force tocapture the port city of Halifax, cutting the Canadians off from their British allies.

Then we seize Canadian power plants near Niagara Falls, so they freeze in the dark.

Then the U.S. Army invades 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.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy seizes the Great Lakes and blockades Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific ports. … “(Raiding the Icebox; Behind Its Warm Front, the United States Made Cold Calculations to Subdue Canada, by Peter Carlson, Washington Post, 30 December 2005, emphasis added).

While the above Washington Post assessment describes the features of an all out war against Canada, the Global and Mail twists realities upside down. The Red War Plan to Attack CRIMSON was casually presented as a peacemaking endeavor to rightfully defend the U.S. against the British:

First approved in 1930, Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan – Red was drawn up to defend the United States in the event of war with Britain.

It was one of a series of such contingency plans produced in the late 1920s. Canada, identified as Crimson, would be invaded to prevent the Britons from using it as a staging ground to attack the United States. (Globe and Mail, December 31, 2005, emphasis add)

The original documents pertaining to the invasion of Canada including “War Plan Red” and Canada’s “Defence Scheme No. 1” are in the archives of the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. [link no longer active].

The complete text of War Plan Red is contained in Annex III. The complete text of the 1866 Annexation Plan is contained in Annex I.

The plan is detailed. It involves both military as well an intelligence components.

According to historian John Major “War, Plan Red” also consisted in “a series of possible pre-emptive American campaigns to invade Canada in several areas and occupy key ports and railways before British troops could provide reinforcement to the Canadians…”

5. Canada’s National Defense

The Canadian federal government and military were fully aware of these “secret” US plans to invade Canada. In the 1920s, Lieutenant James “Buster” Sutherland Brown had been appointed Director of Military Operations and Intelligence in Ottawa to address the issue of Canada’s national security.

His tasks consisted in developing contingency war plans in the case of a US attack against the Dominion of Canada. Under the helm of “Buster” Sutherland Brown (subsequently promoted to Brigadier), Canada’s response to US threats was formulated under “Defence Scheme No. 1”, a counterattack contingency plan, in the case of a US invasion.

“Defense Scheme No. 1” was abandoned in 1931 by Canada’s chief of the general staff, A.G.L. McNaughton (following the adoption of “War Plan Red” in 1930) , on the grounds that “the Americans would inevitably win such a war” and there was no use in acting upon a contingency plan.

6. Ottawa Caves In

The watershed decision by the Conservative government of Prime Minister R. B. Bennett which came to office in August 1930 was to abandon Canada’s national defense plan.

This decision constituted a de facto recognition of US hegemony in North America.

While the invasion of Canada under Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan — Redwas not carried out, the military threat of a U.S invasion plan has served to oblige Canada to ultimately surrender to US political and economic pressures.

Canadians from coast to coast, we are a confederation. A nation-state. Let us take control of our history.

The People of the United States of America are our neighbours and our friends.

Canadians across the land –alongside the people of the USA– are in solidarity with their longstanding commitment to social justice, fundamental human rights and “real democracy.”