Color-coded United States war plans

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The color-coded war plans were a series of plans developed by the United States' Joint Army and Navy Board during the 1920s and 1930s that outlined possible US strategies for a variety of hypothetical war scenarios. The plans developed by the Joint Planning Committee (later the Joint Chiefs of Staff ) were formally withdrawn in 1939 in favor of five Rainbow plans designed to address the threat of two-ocean war against multiple enemies.

Colours

The use of color in US war planning arose from a desire that the Army and Navy use the same symbols in their plans. From late 1904 the Joint Army and Navy Board used a color system, symbols and abbreviated names to represent the countries. Many war plans were known by the color of the country they were associated with, a convention that was used until World War II . When the convention of using colors took root, some were eventually reused, such as Gray , which originally stood for Italy but eventually became the (unrealized) War Plan Gray for the conquest and occupation of the Azores .

In all plans, the US referred to itself as Blue .

War Plan Orange was the war plan that received the most attention. A series of contingency plans to combatJapan wereunofficial in 1919 and officially outlined in 1924. Orange formed some of the foundations for the actual campaign against Japan inWorld War IIand included the huge economic blockade of mainland China and plans tointern Japanese Americans.

War Plan Red was a plan of war againstBritainandCanada. British territories had war plans in different shades of red - Britain was Red , Canada Crimson ,India Ruby ,Australia Scarlet, andNew Zealand Garnet . Ireland, at that time a free state within theBritish Empire, was charged with Emerald referred (emerald green). The plan was updated until the 1930s and caused turmoil in US-Canadian relations when its secrecy was lifted in 1974.

War Plan Black (Schwarz) was a war plan againstGermany. The most famous version of Black wasdesigned as a contingency planduringWorld War I, in case France fell and the Germans triedto conquerFrench possessions in theCaribbeanorlaunchan attack on theeast coast.

Considerations

In view of the state of international relations in the 1920s, many of the war plans were extremely unlikely and corresponded to military plans of other nations. For training and employment, younger military officers were often hired to update the plans, particularly with regard to War Plan Crimson , the invasion of Canada. Some of the war plan colors have been revised over time, which may have resulted in confusion.

Although the USA had only just waged war against Germany after the First World War, intense pressure arose on the army inland when it became known that the army was making plans for a war against Germany. The isolationists fundamentally rejected the idea of ​​participating in a future European conflict. This may have encouraged the army to come up with more speculative planning scenarios.

The American States

War Plan Green (Green)

Relations between Mexico and the United States were often strained during the 1910s . In 1912, US President William Howard Taft considered sending an expeditionary force to protect foreign property during the Mexican Revolution . This is how War Plan Green was developed. In 1916, US troops under General John Pershing invaded Mexico in search of Pancho Villa after his guerrilla force attacked Columbus, New Mexico. Previously, American naval forces had bombed and captured the Mexican port of Veracruz . They forced the Mexican President Victoriano Huerta to abdicate. In 1917, the British secret service intercepted a telegram from the German Foreign Office to its embassy in Mexico City . In this, Germany offered Mexico an alliance against the United States and assistance in the Mexican reconquest of the southwest. When the Zimmermann dispatch was published in American newspapers, it helped to turn American opinion against Germany and to further poison the atmosphere between the United States and Mexico. Relations with Mexico remained tense through the 1920s and 1930s.

Beyond Mexico

Furthermore, the American military intervened several times between the American Civil War and the First World War in Latin America , including Colombia / Panama , Haiti , Cuba and Nicaragua . Parts of the Gray and Purple war plans were used, although the war plans were never officially activated.

Multilateral war plans

Some plans have been expanded to include war against coalitions of hostile powers.

The most detailed was red-orange , which was based on a two - front war against the Anglo-Japanese alliance , but which fell into disrepair in 1924. This was the eventuality that worried US war planners most, as it meant a two-front war over two oceans against powerful naval powers. Theories developed in War Plan Red-Orange were useful during World War II when the United States fought the Axis powers in the Atlantic and Pacific at the same time.

Rainbow Plans

Japan had used the opportunity afforded by the First World War to establish itself as a great power and strategic rival in the Pacific Ocean . After the First World War, most American officials and planners thought war against Japan was very likely. These fears subsided when the civilian government of Japan temporarily suspended its military expansion program (which it did not resume until 1931). War Plan Orange was the largest and most detailed of the color-coded plans.

After the events in Europe in 1938 and 1939 (the annexation of Austria , the Munich Agreement , the smashing of the rest of the Czech Republic and the German-Soviet non-aggression pact ), the American war planners realized that the United States was facing the possibility of war on several fronts against a hostile alliance. As a measure, the Joint Planning Board newly developed the Rainbow plans . The term rainbow is an allusion to the monochrome plans created previously.

  • Rainbow 1 was a plan for a defensive war to protect the United States and the Western Hemisphere north of ten degrees latitude. For such a war, it was assumed that the United States was left without great allies.
  • Rainbow 2 was identical to Rainbow 1 except that the United States was allied with France and the United Kingdom.
  • Rainbow 3 was a iteration of the Orange Plan with the caveat that the defenses of the Western Hemisphere would be pre-secured, as foreseen in Rainbow 1.
  • Rainbow 4 was based on the same assumptions as Rainbow 1, but expanded the American mission to include the defense of the entire western hemisphere.
  • Rainbow 5 , which was intended as the basis for American strategy in World War II, assumed that the United States was allied with Great Britain and France. It envisaged offensive operations by American forces in Europe, Africa, or both.

The assumptions and plans for Rainbow 5 were discussed extensively in the Plan Dog Memorandum , which concluded that the United States should apply the Europe First strategy during World War II .

The plans for Rainbow 5 were published by the press in early December 1941, which is said to have been controlled by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt .

List of color plans

According to the public intelligence service, Global Security, the following plans are known:

War Plan Black (Black)
A plan for the war against Germany . The most famous version of Black was designed as a contingency plan during World War I in case France should fall and the Germans tried to conquer French possessions in the Caribbean or launch an attack on the east coast.
War Plan Gray (gray)
There were two war plans called Gray . The first dealt with Central America and the Caribbean , the second with the invasion of the Portuguese Azores .
War Plan Brown
He was dealing with a riot in the Philippines .
War Plan Tan (light brown)
Intervention in Cuba .
War Plan Red (Red)
War plan for the United Kingdom (with sub-variants Crimson , Scarlet , Ruby , Garnet and Emerald for British dominions )
Was plan Orange
War plan for Japan .
War Plan Red-Orange (Red-Orange)
Considered a two-front war between the United States ( Blue ) and Japan ( Orange ) and the British Empire ( Red ). This analysis led to the understanding that the United States did not have the resources to wage a two-front war . So it would make sense to focus on one front, probably the Atlantic. Ultimately, that was the decision made in the Plan Dog memorandum .
War Plan Yellow
Discusses the war plan against China , particularly with a view to a possible repetition of the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). War Plan Yellow called for the US Army to be stationed in China in coalition with other Imperial forces. The aim was to suppress dissatisfied locals in the Shanghai International Office and in the Beijing Legation District. The measures provided for the use of chemical weapons if necessary .
Was plan gold
Concerned the war plan against France and / or the French Antilles .
War Plan Green (Green)
Concerned the war plan against Mexico, or what was termed "Mexican domestic intervention" to defeat rebel forces and establish a pro-American government. War Plan Green was officially abandoned in 1946.
War Plan Indigo (Indigo Blue)
Concerned the occupation of Iceland . When Denmark came under German occupation in 1941 , the United States actually occupied Iceland, relieving the British forces during the Battle of the Atlantic .
War Plan Purple
Concerned the invasion of a South American country.
War Plan Violet (Violet)
Concerned Latin America .
War Plan White (white)
Concerned a riot in the USA. The plan later evolved into Operation Garden Plot, the general US military plan against civil unrest and peaceful protests. Parts of the war plan white were used in 1932 to coincide with the Bonus Army ( Bonus Expeditionary Force to cope). According to the authors of the War Plan White, the most likely threat came from communist insurgents.
War Plan Blue
Covered defensive plans and preparations the United States should take in peacetime.

Current United States War Plans

  • Operation Plans [OPLAN] from GlobalSecurity.org
    • OPLAN 1002: Defense of the Arabian Peninsula
    • OPLAN 4102: Defense of Western Europe
    • OPLAN 5027: Main War Area West (Korea)
    • OPLAN 8044: atomic case
    • OPLAN 8022: Nuclear Strategy
    • CONPLAN 8022: Prompt Global Strike (immediate, worldwide strike)

literature

  • Louis Morton: Germany First: The Basic Concept of Allied Strategy in World War II (1970)
  • Mark Stoler: George C. Marshall and the “Europe-First” Strategy, 1939–1951: A Study in Diplomatic as well as Military History (2014)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ National Archives at College Park, Record Group 225.2: Records of the Joint Board (1903-1947), Joint Board File No. 325 (War Plans), Serial 19. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: StrategyTheory.org. Archived from the original on November 19, 2016 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  2. ↑ War Plan Gray (WPL-47). National Archives at College Park, Record Group 225.2: Records of the Joint Board (1903-1947), Joint Board File No. 325 (War Plans), Serial 694.
  3. ↑ a b US Color Coded War Plans (1904-1939). In: AlternateWars.com. February 12, 2009, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b John H. Bradley; Jack W. Dice: The Second World War. Asia and the Pacific. Ed .: United States Military Academy. Department of History. v. 2. West Point, New York. 1984, ISBN 0-7570-0160-2 , pp. 26 (English).
  5. ^ Edward Stanley Miller: War Plan Orange: The US Strategy to Defeat Japan, 1897-1945 . Ed .: Naval Institute Press. 1991, ISBN 978-0-87021-759-3 (English).
  6. ↑ Kevin Lippert: War Plan Red . The United States' Secret Plan to Invade Canada, and Canada's to Invade the US PAPress, Hudson NY 2015, ISBN 978-1-61689-352-1 , pp. 144 (English).
  7. ↑ Navy Basic Plan Red, Volume 1 (WPL-22) February 1931. (PDF) In: National Archives at College Park, Record Group 38: Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, NND 968133, Box 22 & 23. Wayback Machine, May 11, 2015, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Angela Chen: War Plan Red. The quirky history behind the secret, full-scale invasion that the United States once planned for Canada, and vice versa. (No longer available online.) In: TheMorningNews.org. November 11, 2015, archived from the original on May 11, 2017 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  9. ^ A b Kent Roberts Greenfield: Command Decisions. (PDF) webpage . (No longer available online.) In: US Army - Center of Military History. 1987, archived from the original on June 29, 2017 ; accessed on August 13, 2019 .
  10. ^ Ronald H. Spector: Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan . Ed .: First Vintage Books Editions. 1985, ISBN 978-0-394-74101-7 , pp. 59 .
  11. ↑ Historian: Franklin D. Roosevelt probably engineered famous WW II plans leak. (No longer available online.) In: UPI. December 2, 1987, archived from the original on October 20, 2017 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  12. ↑ John Pike: War Plan Rainbow. (No longer available online.) In: GlobalSecurity.org. July 3, 2017, archived from the original on September 2, 2017 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  13. ↑ : Session: Problems and Exercises, Blue and Orange Series, Blue and Black Series, 1914-1915 . In: Instructional Records, compiled 1921-1940, documenting the period 1864-1940. War Department.
  14. ^ A b : Gray [Central America, Caribbean], 2877 . In: Top Secret Correspondence Relating to Mobilization Plans, compiled 1922–1942. War Department.
  15. ↑ : 694. Basic Plan for Capture and Occupation of Azores (Gray) . In: Security Classified Correspondence of the Joint Army-Navy Board, compiled 1918 - 03/1942, documenting the period 1910 - 03/1942. War Department.
  16. ↑ : Brown [Philippines], 1473-1 to 1473-8 . In: Top Secret Correspondence Relating to Mobilization Plans, compiled 1922–1942. War Department.
  17. ↑ : 456. Intervention Plan Tan . In: Security Classified Correspondence of the Joint Army-Navy Board, compiled 1918 - 03/1942, documenting the period 1910 - 03/1942. War Department.
  18. ↑ : 274. Tentative Plan Red . In: Security Classified Correspondence of the Joint Army-Navy Board, compiled 1918 - 03/1942, documenting the period 1910 - 03/1942. War Department.
  19. ↑ : 280. Was Plan Orange . In: Security Classified Correspondence of the Joint Army-Navy Board, compiled 1918 - 03/1942, documenting the period 1910 - 03/1942. War Department.
  20. ↑ : Red-Orange [Great Britain-Japan], 2963 . In: Top Secret Correspondence Relating to Mobilization Plans, compiled 1922–1942. War Department.
  21. ↑ 3479-13 Yellow - China. Top Secret Correspondence Relating to Mobilization Plans, compiled 1922–1942. In: War Department. November 29, 2011, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  22. ^ Allan Reed Millett: Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps . Ed .: The Free Press, Simon and Schuster. New York 1991, ISBN 0-02-921595-1 , pp. 225 ( google.ch ).
  23. ↑ Steven T. Ross: US War Plans: 1938-1945 . Ed .: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Boulder CO 2002, ISBN 978-1-58826-008-6 , pp. 2 .
  24. ^ Thomas I. Faith: Behind the Gas Mask. The US Chemical Warfare Service in War and Peace . Ed .: Illinois Scholarship Online. October 2014, OCLC 900647045 , p. 129 ( universitypressscholarship.com ).
  25. ↑ : Game Plan Gold . Avalanche Press.
  26. ↑ : 571. War Plan Green . In: Security Classified Correspondence of the Joint Army-Navy Board, compiled 1918 - 03/1942, documenting the period 1910 - 03/1942. War Department.
  27. ^ : Purple [South America], 3078 . In: Top Secret Correspondence Relating to Mobilization Plans, compiled 1922–1942. War Department.
  28. ↑ : 237. Violet Plan . In: Security Classified Correspondence of the Joint Army-Navy Board, compiled 1918 - 03/1942, documenting the period 1910 - 03/1942. War Department.
  29. ^ Top Secret Correspondence Relating to Mobilization Plans, compiled 1922–1942. Top Secret Correspondence Relating to Mobilization Plans, compiled 1922–1942. In: War Department. December 3, 2011, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Context of 'Spring 1992: Military Updates Operation Garden Plot Following Riots in Los Angeles'. (No longer available online.) In: HitoryCommons.org. May 26, 2002, archived from the original on October 27, 2017 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  31. ↑ 606 Blue - US Peak Time Preparedness. Top Secret Correspondence Relating to Mobilization Plans, compiled 1922–1942. In: War Department. December 3, 2011, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Operation Plans [OPLAN]. (No longer available online.) In: GlobalSecurity.org. August 13, 2017, archived from the original on December 22, 217 Template: FormatDate / Maintenance / 0; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  33. ^ John Pike: OPLAN 1002 Defense of the Arabian Peninsula. (No longer available online.) In: GlobalSecurity.org. July 5, 2011, archived from the original on May 10, 2018 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  34. ↑ OPLAN 4102 Defense of Western Europe. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 3, 2018 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  35. ^ Robert D. Kaplan: When North Korea Falls. (No longer available online.) In: The Atlantic - Atlantic Monthly. October 2006, archived from the original on July 30, 2018 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  36. ↑ Context of 'Spring 1992: Military Updates Operation Garden Plot Following Riots in Los Angeles'. (No longer available online.) In: History Commons. 2012, archived from the original on 2017 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  37. ^ Louis Morton: Germany First: The Basic Concept of Allied Strategy in World War II. (No longer available online.) In: US Army Military History. Archived from the original on July 1, 1970 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  38. ^ Mark Stoler: George C. Marshall and the "Europe-First" Strategy, 1939-1951. (PDF) A Study in Diplomatic as well as Military History. (No longer available online.) In: MarshallFoundation.org. Wayback Machine, April 22, 2014; archived from the original on March 23, 2018 ; accessed on August 13, 2018 .