War Plan Red

In the early 1930s, world tensions had remained calm. Escalation did not seem to be a prospect, and the horrors of another world war were not being considered until a few years later. America was trying to clamber its way out of total collapse, with the Great Depression sending the economy spiralling down. A war was not on the American political menu. Undisturbed isolation was on Frank Roosevelt's mind.

Despite this, the USA's Department of War and Department of Navy made efforts to draw up hypothetical plans for war. War Plan Black was a plan for war with Germany that came to fruition in the young years of the 20th century, it was used in the First World War after being revised in 1916. War Plan Orange was for war with Japan, which failed to compensate for the destruction of the docked American battleship fleet alongside various screen ships.

War Plan Red, however, was a plan for war with the United Kingdom and its colonies.

Today, this seems insane. Why would the United States go to war with one of its closest allies? Their supporter in all things military? Brothers in democracy and pioneers of liberty!

Well we have to remember that these were hypothetical plans for war, and in fact was even waived after the Second World War broke out. Despite this, its fascinating to think what could have been. If, in the fallout of the Great Depression, America had turned to someone other than the democratic FDR, and sided with the ever growing fascist movement.

In the plan, detailed plans for attack on Canada are laid out. A poison gas strike on Halifax, a quick occupation of the east coast to prevent British reinforcement, and critical seizure of the heart of Canadian railways in Winnipeg. In fact, nearly the entire plan involves an invasion of Canada. The USA acknowledged that the British would have a key advantage in its naval supremacy, but maintained the British would be defeated by a naval, and then land based, blockade, starving the islands out.

Britain didn't have an official plan for war with America. They just had some vague idea that they would be extremely vulnerable to the American navy if they didn't destroy it first, and eventually just hold out for a stalemate.

The plan interestingly rejects any notion of returning any gained territory. Provinces of Canada seized by the USA would become one of the united states. Alongside this, they envisioned no advances outside of the western hemisphere, with the ground war being focused almost entirely on the Canadian front.

In 1974, War Plan Red was declassified by the Nixon, which certainly caused a tightening of the throat and a few audible gulps around the Canadian House of Commons. The tension subsided once they'd checked the NATO rule book though, and all was well in the world again.

But imagine what could have been. It isn't hard to do. Canada would have been no more. And no Britain too.

American Epic

Through the 1960s, the concept of the western swept through cinema. The now legendary Sergio Leone directed the now legendary Dollars trilogy, as well as Once Upon A Time In The West. These became the classic American Epics. Tales from the wild west portrayed in the untouchable style of Leone and sound tracked by the brilliant Ennio Morricone. The American Epic has since lived on, most notably and most recently in the 3 hour slog that is The Revenant.

These are not only films, they are incredible stories that have its environment at the core. Post-colonial America is a fascinating setting, because of the sheer space unlike anything seen before in Europe. After the acquisition of Louisiana, the mid-west of America became a vast expanse nothingness. This wilderness and sheer lawlessness is what inspired the great westerns of the 60s. Bandits rode, sheriffs chased, and now and then someone would get caught. A great portrayal of the emptiness of America at the time is the opening scene in Once Upon A Time In The West.

Despite these epic stories across vast expanses, it was only a decade before, in the 50s when Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams were writing the very opposites of an American Epic. They wrote plays that on nowhere near the incredible story of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, but instead immensely introspective concentrated. Perhaps the most famous American play by Miller, Death Of A Salesman is written like a close reading of The American Dream. A tragic tale of a single man  and his family. No crazy action scenes or drawn out chases. The brilliance of Death Of A Salesman is that Miller says so much without addressing the reader directly once. All of Miller's ideas are conveyed through the dialogue of Willy Loman and those who surround. This style of dialogue driven art has been waning since the classics of the 50s were written.

The Revenant, The Hateful Eight and The Magnificent Seven are all films released this year, perhaps signifying a revival of the American Epic. But the American Classics. Quiet, tragic tales driven by dialogue and often saying more than all the characters combined sit gathering dust. Maybe that's for the better. The climate the America is in is perhaps not ready for another shake to the American Dream, or a wake up call with regards to masculinity. And perhaps these classics will only accumulate worth as they got older, with a certain prestige and vintage growing around the stories.

American Epics and American classics each have incredible value and are wonderful works within their own rite, and today, they are where they belong. At least for now.