# Were there any plans to invade the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478 "2008-04-15T19:22:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/1 "2008-04-15T19:22:11Z")
Did the Germans/Japanese have plans to invade the continental USA during WWII?It probably would not be in a 1941-1945 timetable, and the oceans would’ve been quite an obstacle. However, with a war declared, I’d have to imagine Germany’s and Japan’s plans needed to include some sort of action against US soil. I guess I can expand this question to any war after 1812, including the Cold War. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/2 "2008-04-15T19:25:00Z")
Heck, the Germans didn’t even have any prewar plan to invade Great Britain, and only cobbled one together after the quick conquest of France. I do think there was something on Japan’s target list concerning the Hawaiian Islands tho. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/3 "2008-04-15T19:36:20Z")
Both Germany and Japan were looking to expand their territory in the immediate neighbourhood, so Germany had ambitions in Europe while Japan had ambitions in Asia. That didn’t require them to invade the US, but just for them to neutralise it. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was not to turn Hawaii into a Japanese colony, but just to eliminate as much as possible of the US Navy so that navy would not interfere with Japanese plans. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/4 "2008-04-15T20:13:05Z")
I’ve read that later in the war, the Japanese wanted to use Midway as a stepping stone to take over Hawaii, not so much because they wanted to take U.S. territory but just because they wanted to prevent the U.S. from using Hawaii as a launching point for long range bombers. From what I read, though, the aim was only to kick the U.S. out of the Pacific, not to continue on to the continental U.S. The Japanese also had their eye on Alaska, again as part of their aim to kick the U.S. out of the Pacific. The U.S. feared that the Japanese wanted to attack and capture Alaska. The Japanese, on the other hand, were looking at the Alaska situation from more of a defensive view. Japan didn’t want to capture Alaska, but they didn’t want the U.S. to use Alaska as a starting point for an invasion on Japan either. Japan did capture a couple of the Aleutian Islands, which they thought would be enough to prevent the U.S. from making an attack along that route. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/5 "2008-04-15T20:20:24Z")
Well if [Red Dawn](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087985/) is anything to go by the Soviets and the Cubans planned to carve up the USA. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/6 "2008-04-15T21:07:53Z")
[How soon we forget…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/7 "2008-04-15T21:16:40Z")
The OP mentioned 1812, actually. ---
**Author:** ![NunOfTheAbove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@NunOfTheAbove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NunOfTheAbove)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/8 "2008-04-15T21:18:27Z")
[QUOTE=KGS] [How soon we forget…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812) [/QUOTE] Actually, the OP has the war of 1812 as the last line of his post. So he didn’t forget it… ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/9 "2008-04-15T21:21:00Z")
I believe I remember reading something about the War of 1812 in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/10 "2008-04-15T21:52:18Z")
Didn’t Britain invade in that War of 1812? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/11 "2008-04-15T22:01:07Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] Didn’t Britain invade in that War of 1812? [/QUOTE] Yeh, but it was more in the nature of a bitch-slap; I doubt they had any plans for occupying a square mile of U.S. territory. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/12 "2008-04-15T22:06:49Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] Didn’t Britain invade in that War of 1812? [/QUOTE] They used 1920’s Style Death Rays to do it, too. How, you may ask, **how** could they use 1920’s Style Death Rays in 1812. Simple. By means of a cunning ruse, of course. Duh. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/13 "2008-04-15T22:50:35Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Carrot] The OP mentioned 1812, actually. [/QUOTE] Ya, but that was like a hundered years ago. ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/14 "2008-04-16T00:34:40Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] Didn’t Britain invade in that War of 1812? [/QUOTE] Kinda. The existence of Britain was threatened by the French. As such, the British did all they could to prevent the French from receiving support, including messing with the operations of a neutral state - the USA. When the Americans finally got sick of this, they planned an invasion of Canada. Then the Americans invaded British territory, and the British retaliated. France represented an existential threat to Britain, and the British did whatever they could to neutralise that threat, even if innocent nations were harmed. That all sounds somewhat familiar to me, well, except for the “existential threat” part. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/15 "2008-04-16T00:47:27Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Yeh, but it was more in the nature of a bitch-slap; I doubt they had any plans for occupying a square mile of U.S. territory. [/QUOTE] I don’t think they would have readily returned New Orleans, had they succeeded in taking it. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/16 "2008-04-16T00:56:25Z")
There was a Canadian invasion of Sven and Ole’s Pizza in Grand Marais, Minnesota, on Sunday after skiing. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/17 "2008-04-16T00:58:33Z")
Wasn’t the British Invasion in the 1960’s? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/18 "2008-04-16T01:03:06Z")
Heck, I’ve been on military exercises that postulated the fictional nation of “Orangeland” that existed on the border of Canada and the U.S. (and presumably comprised territory that in reality belongs to both). If things really got hairy and we had to keep going south, we were prepared. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/19 "2008-04-16T01:13:35Z")
[Fifty Four Forty or Fight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_boundary_dispute), dammit! Not \*all \* of us Damyanks have forgotten our occupied brethren north of the Forty Ninth. Buckle up, moosejockeys. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478/20 "2008-04-16T01:24:08Z")
Maybe I should rephrase the question. I know the oceans presented enormous difficulties. Had the Germans beaten the Russians and English, what was next? There was still a declared enemy left. I was just wondering if there were any plans or scenarios, say found in German bunkers after WWII or something? Swoop up Florida while invading New England in a pincer movement or some such. Firebombing Washington and New York to soften them up as the main objectives of the pincer. Cut rail to Chicago and Midwest while Japan has a blockade of the West Coast. You know, stuff like that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-plans-to-invade-the-usa/445478.md?page=2)