Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Plans for a US/Canadian War

Starting point is 00:00:00 The United States and Canada share the world's longest undefended border. The United States and the United Kingdom have shared what has been called a special relationship since the Second World War. The idea of these countries going to war with each other today is unthinkable. Yet this was always not the case. There was a time when this was very thinkable, and that time was far more recent than most people realize. Learn more about the planning for a U.S.-Canadian war and how both sides made plans to invade

Starting point is 00:00:29 each other on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day and tonight. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The idea of a war between the United States and Canada seems.

Starting point is 00:01:16 ridiculous today. And it is. However, relations were not always so good. To understand why, you need to understand that for much of the last 200 years, Canada and Britain's interests have been very intertwined. In fact, for the purpose of this episode, much of the talk about Canada is really just a proxy for Britain. In a previous episode, I discussed when Canada truly became independent. Most Canadians will tell you that they became independent in 1867. But that date is far from cut and dry. Canada wasn't allowed to have a military until 1899, and every piece of legislation passed by the Canadian Parliament had to be approved by the British Parliament up until 1982. Canada didn't even have an embassy in the United States until 1927 as it was represented

Starting point is 00:02:04 by the United Kingdom. So while American independence was sudden and very cut and dry, Canadian independence was more of a process. So while the land, and we know of as Canada is very much front and center of what I'll be talking about in this episode, the concern wasn't Canada so much as it was Great Britain. British American relations were cordial, but far from harmonious in the century after the War of 1812. The British had the biggest empire in the world, and the United States was a rapidly growing country. There were a series of small skirmishes that took place in the 19th century. The lumberjack war of 1838 and the Pig War of 1813.

Starting point is 00:02:46 were two such border skirmishes. Britain didn't outright support the Confederacy during the Civil War, but there were powerful factions who sympathized with them because they wanted cotton for their textile mills. In 1866, a group of Irish-American immigrants hatched a plan to invade Canada with the intent of holding it ransom to get the British to leave Ireland. The U.S. turned a blind eye to this activity during the war, but ended it during the Grant administration. By the late 19th century, the United States had overtaken the United Kingdom as the world's largest economy. They didn't have as powerful an army or navy, but they were starting to exert their influence on the world stage.

Starting point is 00:03:27 Events such as the Venezuelan crisis of 1895 brought tensions to a peak when the United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine to challenge British influence in Venezuela. Britain ultimately backed down, but the incident showcased how imperial ambitions could lead to friction. None of these conflicts ever came seriously close to starting a war. With the advent of World War I, the two countries were close allies in the fight against Germany. You'd think that after the first World War, whatever differences the two countries had would be put aside once and for all. But that was not the case. The first plan for a war between the United States and Canada was actually hatched by Canada. After the war, Britain to owe the United States a tremendous amount of money,

Starting point is 00:04:12 $22 billion, and that was back when $22 billion was a lot of money. The two countries had serious disagreements as to the payment terms, and there were concerns among some Canadians that the Americans would seek payment in the form of territory. This wasn't actually ever considered by the United States, but it's the job of military planners to consider all eventualities. So one Canadian military officer, Lieutenant Colonel James Sutherland, Buster Brown, began to consider what Canada could do if it were ever invaded by the United States. In 1921, Brown personally conducted reconnaissance by crossing the border into New York

Starting point is 00:04:55 State, donning a disguise and scouting the area across the border. Much of his scouting was buying maps at gas stations. And why he had to wear a disguise, I'm not really sure, because he could have just crossed the border and told everyone he met exactly who he was and what he was doing, and no one would have really cared. After a careful analysis of the situation, Lieutenant Colonel Brown created what was known as Canadian Defense Scheme Number One. Brown made a critical observation with regards to Canada's defense. The country lacked no strategic depth. Strategic depth is a military and geopolitical concept referring to the distance between a nation's front lines or borders and its vital centers of population, industry, and

Starting point is 00:05:40 military resources. A good example of a country with a lot of strategic depth is Russia. When France and Germany invaded them, they were able to just retreat eastward, extending the enemy supply lines until they could regroup and counterattack. Canada, too, is an enormous country, but almost all of the population centers lie within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Whereas Russia was able to retreat to the east, Canada can't really retreat to the north. Other than in the Great Plains, they quickly run into forests and lakes, which are difficult to maneuver in. Brown realized that this lack of strategic depth meant that Canada would be overwhelmed quickly by any American invasion. To solve this problem, Brown's recommendation in defense scheme

Starting point is 00:06:27 number one was audacious and simple. Canada should conduct a preemptive invasion of the United States. The goal would be to try to disrupt American forces before they could fully mobilize and invade Canada. The plan was not to conquer the United States, but to buy time for Canada to prepare its defenses and for British reinforcements to arrive, which the plan just assumed that they would. It would also buy the Canadians the strategic depth that they lacked. And they would have the element of surprise, because if Canada ever attacked the United States, everyone would be surprised. Brown proposed a five-pronged attack on the United States. prong one would take place in the west. Forces would come out of British Columbia and attempt to see Seattle, Spokane, and possibly Portland.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Prong two would come out of Manitoba or Saskatchewan. They would attempt to take Fargo, Great Falls, and, if possible, Minneapolis. Prong three would come out of Ontario and try to take Detroit and Niagara. Prong four would come out of Quebec into upstate New York and try to take Albany. And prong five would come out of New Brunswick and try to take Maine. that would be an enormous front. It would be far larger than any front maintained in any war in history, simply because there aren't many places on Earth where you can even have a front that long. There were several problems with defense scheme number one. The biggest of which was that he in no way consulted the British on whom the entire plan ultimately relied.

Starting point is 00:08:02 The second problem was that he totally ignored the defense of importance of the British. Atlantic ports, such as Halifax. What Brown didn't know was that in 1919, the British conducted their own assessment of a conflict with the Americans and concluded that they would not fight to defend Canada. It wasn't considered vital to the empire at that point, and moreover, they believe such a conflict to be unwinnable. Their report noted, quote, the empire would be committed to an unlimited land war against the USA, with all advantages of time, distance, and supply on the side of the USA. End quote.

Starting point is 00:08:42 In 1928, the Canadian military put an end to defense scheme number one and ordered most of the documents destroyed. However, this is only half the story. In a previous episode, I mentioned the Plan Dog Memorandum. This was a series of military plans that this was a series of military plans that this was. the American military created in the 1930s to prepare for any eventual conflicts that might arise. In that episode, I spoke about the plans for an eventual war with Germany or Japan and how they served as advanced planning for the Second World War.

Starting point is 00:09:16 However, the United States also created a plan for a possible conflict with the British Empire, and this became known as War Plan Red. There's no indication that the Americans were aware of Canada, defense scheme number one, war plan read was developed independently. One possible scenario that the Americans considered was an alliance between the British and the Japanese. If a conflict were to break out, then the Americans assumed that the British would seek the aid of Japan and possibly Mexico. The American plan involved an invasion of Canada to deny the British a staging location for attacks on American territory, as well as resources

Starting point is 00:09:58 for their war effort. The planned invasion strategy was almost a mirror of the invasion plan developed by Lieutenant Colonel Brown years earlier for Canada. A broad front was needed to take out Canadian cities close to the border and take advantage of the lack of strategic depth that Brown had recognized. It also called for creating military bases along the border and using civilian airfields for military purposes. Unlike the Canadian plan, the American plan had a major naval component as well.

Starting point is 00:10:30 It assumed that the British Navy was superior and that it had to stop the British from controlling major Atlantic ports and the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Americans also assumed that the British would try to blockade New Orleans and shut down the Mississippi River. In addition, it would require defense of the West Coast from a possible Japanese invasion, as well as of the Mexican border. The Americans assume that they could mobilize an army of 12 million men in a matter of 60 days. and this was out of a population of about 110 million at the time,

Starting point is 00:11:03 and 12 million was more than the entire population of Canada. One reason why they believe they could mobilize so many so quickly is because unlike the First World War, they'd be fighting at home. Many more men would volunteer because they would be fighting to defend their home and could move quickly with their own transportation and, if necessary, their own weapons. input on the plan came from a wide variety of sources, including the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh. Supposedly, he recommended the use of chemical weapons, which were in violation of the Geneva Convention, in an invasion of Canada.

Starting point is 00:11:43 By the late 1930s, war plan red was rendered obsolete as American and British relations strengthened before the start of the Second World War. Canada and the U.S. began collaborating on mutual defense plan, such as the August, Ogdensburg Agreement of 1940, which established the Joint Defense of North America. It was filed away and forgotten until it was declassified in 1974. Today, both war plan red and defense scheme number one are looked at with humor on both sides. There's no reason to believe that there are any such plans today, even theoretically, because of the joint security concerns of all countries involved.

Starting point is 00:12:20 When the plans were released, it didn't impact relations between the United States and Canada, as both sides realized it was just contingency planning, and the plans were never taken seriously. The 1995 movie Canadian Bacon is a satirical comedy starring John Candy. In it, a U.S. President fabricates a conflict with Canada to boost his approval ratings. And the 1999 South Park movie also uses an American-Canadian war as a plot device. So the idea of an American-Canadian war is now pretty much just the subject of comedy. The U.S.-Canadian border is 8,891 kilometers, or 5,525 miles long. It is not only the longest border in the world, but it is also totally undefended. So while the idea of a rematch of the War of 1812 is almost

Starting point is 00:13:09 impossible, if something should ever happen, each country does have a plan that they could always dust off just in case. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere or Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything

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Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Plans for a US/Canadian War

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