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THE
SECRET
U.S. PLAN
TO OVERTHROW
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WAR PLAN RED
Graham M Simons
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The Secret U.S. Plan To Overthrow The British Empire
War Plan Red
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Frontline Books,
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Yorkshire - Philadelphia
Copyright © Graham M Simons
ISBN: 978-1-47389-236-1
The right of Graham M Simons to be identified as Author of this work has been
asserted by him/her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
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in writing.
Typeset in 10 pt Times by GMS Enterprises, Peterborough.
Printed and bound by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall.
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Contents
Acknowledgements ......................................................................... 4
Introduction. ................................................................................... 5
Chapter 1 War Plan Red - and Other Machinations......................... 7
Chapter 2 Rule Britannia! ................................................................ 11
Chapter 3 The Run-Up to Red ......................................................... 55
Chapter 4 War Plan Red................................................................... 71
Chapter 5 How to Win Friends and Influence People ..................... 113
Chapter 6 The Ambassador, His Son, and a Spy ............................. 143
Chapter 7 SPOBS - USAFBI ......................................................... 179
Chapter 8 USAFBI becomes the ETOUSA..................................... 227
Chapter 9 Aftermath ...................................................................... 231
Bibliography and Resources ............................... ........................... 249
Index .......................................................................................... 251
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Acknowledgements
A book of this nature would not have been possible without the help of
many people and organisations.
My thanks go to - in no particular order - David Lee; Simon Peters,
John Hamlin, Sydney Craner-Hargrove, Dr Harry Friedman, Martin
Mace, Russell Plummer, ‘Paddy’ Porter, Ian Frimston, Phil McCraken
the staff of the National Archives and Records Administration, Jeff
Duford, Roger Deere, Laura Hirst, Amy Jordan, Lori Jones, Jon
Wilkinson, Charles Hewitt and all the staff at Pen & Sword.
I am indebted to many people and organisations for providing
photographs for this story, but in some cases it has not been possible to
identify the original photographer and so credits are given in the
appropriate places to the immediate supplier. If any of the pictures have
not been correctly credited, please accept my apologies.
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Introduction
This book starts around the turn of the 20th Jacky Fisher never gave any credit to
century when Vittorio Emanuele Cuniberti (1854 Cuniberti or any foreigner for that matter. The
– 1913) an Italian military officer and naval Americans were publishing articles about
engineer envisioned the concept of the all big gun potential designs and the General Board was
battleship. He recorded his thoughts in an article reviewing several options, but USS South
he wrote for Jane’s Fighting Ships in 1903. The Carolina and USS Michigan were not authorised
vessel Cuniberti envisaged would be nothing less until March 1905 and neither were laid down
than a colossus of the seas. His main idea was that until December 1906. Neither were the Japanese
this ship would carry only one calibre of gun - the building the Satsuma class, which wasn’t ordered
twelve-inch - the largest available. until 1904 and laid down in 1905.
This heavily armoured titan would be To say the threat from the dreadnought
impervious to all but the twelve-inch guns of the concept worried other nations is an
enemy. Cuniberti saw the enemy’s small calibre understatement - it petrified them! It was now a
guns as having no effect on his design. race to match, and hopefully beat the British
Cuniberti’s vessel had twelve large calibre guns Royal Navy - then came the Great War which
and would have a significant advantage over the brought forth even more advances.
then-standard four of the enemy ship. His ship The horrors of the war brought forth
would be fast so that she could choose her point campaigns for peace, at the same time as there
of attack. Cuniberti saw this ship able to discharge were clamourings within certain quarters that
such a massive broadside, all of one large calibre, America should consider itself first. The 1920s
that she would engulf first one enemy ship, then were to become a battle between disparate
move on to the next, and the next, disdainfully groups - hawks, doves, imperialists, isolationists,
destroying an entire enemy fleet. He conjectured politicians, military men - all had vested
that the effect of a squadron of six colossi would interests, and all had a drum to bang. There were
give a fleet such overwhelming power as to deter calls from the so-called ‘Isolationists’ for
all possible opponents. keeping out of any future conflicts with what
At this time the political atmosphere in was seen as ‘the old world’. Within the
Britain was explosive; for the first time since American politico-military establishment was a
Trafalgar, there was a severe challenge to the growing body of opinion termed ‘Imperialists’
Royal Navy. A short distance across the North who thought that they - the United States of
Sea, the German Navy, was building a powerful America - could and should be the world’s only
fleet. Behind that fleet lay the overwhelming superpower. Coupled with this was the anti-
power of the German Army. Behind Britain’s, sea British emotions stirred up by convicted
shield lay the numerically small British Army. criminal and jail escapee Éamon de Valera.
The challenge to Britain was serious. Admiral Throughout the 1920s there was a whole
Sir John ‘Jacky’ Fisher, Royal Navy, was the series of peace and re-armament conferences in
driving force behind the revolutionary HMS which the Imperialists metaphorically fought
Dreadnought. The ship was completed in a year with the Isolationists for control over hearts,
and day and was launched in 1906. minds and the military-industrial complex. If the
Dreadnought’s speed was ensured by using the Imperialists within the US Navy won this
revolutionary turbine engines devised by Sir clandestine battle, then they would achieve their
Charles Parsons. aims to become the world’s super-power.
Immediately this vessel defined the era. It became clear as the decade wore on that the
Thereafter all battleships following its design Imperialists were not going to gain a clear-cut
would be referred to, generically, as victory, so other, more direct means would be
‘dreadnoughts’. needed - and it is at this point that the story moves
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from being an entrée to the main course. The against the definition of the word - a spy being a
majority of this book has been compiled using person employed by a government or other
just three contemporary, primary-source sets of organisation to obtain information on an enemy
documents from NARA - the National Archives or competitor secretly. That said, their
& Records Administration. The first is what was intelligence-gathering activities spread out from
called War Plan Red, a scheme for the USA to Great Britain as far as the Middle East, Africa,
invade Canada and the Caribbean and then South America, Russia and Asia - far beyond the
destroy the Royal Navy which in turn would terms of the original brief. It also did not cease
destroy the British Empire. The second is a group with the outbreak of peace in 1945. The advent
of files called ‘SPOBS - The Special Observers of the ‘Cold War’ between East and West brought
Group’, an organisation that evolved from a large forth a whole new range of subterfuge and behind
number of MilitaryAttachés based in and the scenes activities by the CIA that had been
operating out of the American Embassy in formed on 18 September 1947.
Grosvenor Square, London. This group, in turn, The USA and the Soviet Union fought a whole
developed into what was recorded in the third set series of wars by proxy around the world, ranging
of files, detailing what was termed the USAFBI from The Far East, through Africa to Central and
- the United States Armed Forces in the British Southern America - often in countries that were
Isles. With the eventual coming of American formerly part of the British Empire. Although the
troops to the UK, this was to become the ETO - subject of many books in its own right, this too is
European Theater of Operations. investigated to put things in context.
The linking item between War Plan Red and So, were the Americans allies — or spies?
the SPOBS is the evolution of many extreme Certainly the SPOBS bled Great Britain white of
right-wing groups, individuals and organisations data and information, sending it all back to the
who had literally millions of followers and War Department in Washington under the guise
supporters who were able to sway public opinion of preparing to help. It was also something of a
in the USA to persuade the military men to shelve blueprint that America was to use in one form or
War Plan Red and use different tactics to achieve another to ‘encourage’ regime change around the
their aim. world through the seventy years or so after World
As early as 1939 the American military War Two, and continues on today.
establishment created an intelligence-gathering
machine of ever-growing dimensions within their Writing this has proved to be challenging -
Embassy in London under the ambassadorship of reading it may be the same. The difficulties, as
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Snr. usual with much of my work, springs from the
This was well before the creation of the Office differences of our so-called ‘common language’.
of Strategic Services (OSS) which was the Color becomes colour, program becomes
wartime intelligence agency of the USA during programme, and of course, American phrasing is
World War Two, and a predecessor of the modern often different from English. Then there is the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OSS was dreaded use of plane instead of aircraft; I don’t
formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff care what anyone says, a plane is a cutting tool
(JCS) to gather intelligence and to coordinate used to smooth wood in my books!
espionage activities for all branches of the US This was further complicated - especially in
Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the the latter part of this work - by using primary
use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war source documents written by Americans, but at
planning. least typed out in part by British civilians,
The difficulty here is in trying to determine if resulting in the strange mix of British and
the Military Attachés and SPOBS activities could American spellings and phrasing appearing on
be termed as ‘spying’, for according to the the same carbon copy! It is a standard convention
discovered documents, they were operating - at that quotes are sacrosanct, so these anomalies
least in the early days in Great Britain - with the remain untouched.
full permission and knowledge of British Prime Graham M Simons
Minister Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax, Peterborough
the Foreign Secretary. This, of course, goes 25 December 2019.
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Chapter One
War Plan Red - And Other Machinations.
The joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan Red Royal Navy. The plan further assumed that
was one of a series of colour-coded war plans Britain would probably use its base in Canada
created by the United States armed forces in as a springboard from which to initiate an
the late 1920s and early 1930s to estimate the invasion of the United States. The assumption
requirements for a war - hypothetical or was taken that at first Britain would fight a
otherwise - with the United Kingdom. defensive battle against invading American
Termed the ‘Red’ forces - one suspects forces, but that the US would eventually defeat
because the standard coding for the British the British by blockading Britain and cutting
Empire on all maps and globes was that colour, off its food supplies.
War Plan Red discussed the potential for War Plan Red was developed by the United
fighting a war with the British Empire and States Army following the 1927 Geneva Naval
outlined those steps necessary to defend the Conference and approved in May 1930 by
Atlantic coast against any attempted invasion Secretary of War, Patrick J. Hurley and
of the United States of America. Secretary of Navy, Charles Francis Adams III.
The use of colours for US war planning The Plan appears to have been updated over
originated from the the period 1934-35;
The title page of the 1931 edition of Navy Basic Plan,
desire for the Army but seems not to
Red, more commonly known as War Plan Red.
and Navy to use the have been presented
Remarkably, it took thirty-seven years to declassify
same symbols for this document. (NARA) for congressional
their plans. At the or presidential
end of 1904, the approval. Only the
Joint Board adopted US Congress has the
a system of colours, power to declare
symbols, and war.
abbreviated names The plans,
to represent different developed by the
countries. Many war Joint Planning
plans became Committee - which
known by the colour later became the
of the country to Joint Chiefs of Staff
which they were - were officially
related, a convention withdrawn in 1939.
that lasted through That year, on the
World War Two. outbreak of World
The plan outlined War Two, a decision
those actions that was taken that no
would be necessary further planning was
if the US and the required but the plan
UK went to war would be retained.
with each other. It The 1930 edition
assumed that the of War Plan Red
British would was not even
initially have the partially declassified
upper hand due to until 1974, when it
the strength of their was sold to the
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general public by the ‘isolationists’ operating
American politico - within the American
military machine as political system. There
little more than part of were also outside
a series of strategic influences at work,
planning exercises such as an eighteen-
involving a number of month sojourn in the
‘what if’ scenarios, US by convicted
drawn up and criminal and jail
continually updated by escapee Éamon de
low-ranked officers as Valera, who did much
‘make-work’, none of to sway public opinion.
which had ever been Then there was the
seriously considered. It massive upwelling of
was claimed that given support for Germany’s
the state of ‘National-sozialismus’
international relations or National Socialism -
in the 1920s, the war the Nazis.
plans were extremely These events need
unlikely to happen and investigating in detail
were just in keeping and context as well as
with the military Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D] (b. 30 January 1882, looking at War Plan
planning of other d. 12 April 1945), often referred to by his initials Red and how this plan
FDR, was an American statesman and political leader
nation-states. evolved into a whole
who served as the 32nd President of the United
The War Plans were series of nefarious
States from 1933 until his death in 1945. (NARA)
described in a rainbow ramifications that
of colours: Blue denoted the USA, Crimson created spies, lies and deception which
was Canada, India was Ruby, Australia was impacted on World War Two and the so-called
Scarlet, New Zealand was Garnet, Ireland was ‘special relationship’!
Emerald. Newfoundland - for some reason The Special Relationship is an unofficial
separated from Canada and classed as Red. The term often used to describe the political,
rest of the British Empire - mostly, but not the diplomatic, cultural, economic, military, and
African continent - not coded otherwise was historical relations between Great Britain and
coloured pink. the United States. The origins of the phrase
By 1974 the general public may have been have always been attributed to British Prime
sold the idea that this was just a ‘what if’ Minister Winston Spencer Churchill. Indeed,
planning exercise and that it only involved the first recorded use by Churchill of the term
Canada - even by 2011, when the 1931 edition ‘special relationship’ was on 16 February 1944,
was declassified, nothing like the full picture when he said it was his ‘...deepest conviction
was emerging. that unless Britain and the United States are
It was not until more material surfaced in joined in a special relationship, another
the new millennium that something destructive war will come to pass’.
approaching the complete story started to The two nations have been close allies
surface that could be said to change the during many conflicts in the 20th and 21st
previously known timeline and events of World centuries, including World War One, World
War Two. Far from starting in 1930, events can War Two, the Korean War, the Cold War, the
be traced back to the latter days of the Great Gulf War, and the War on Terror.
War, when the USA was studying its policies Although both governments have close
in virtually every area of the globe. relationships with many other nations, the level
of cooperation between the UK and the US in
Outside influences and a Special Relationship? trade and commerce, military planning,
Even in 1918, there was a strong contingent of execution of military operations, nuclear
‘Imperialists’, ‘non-interventionalists’ and weapons technology, and intelligence sharing
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has been described as Kennedy returned to
unparalleled among Washington, where he
major world powers. delivered to the
But was that a President his blunt
relationship between opinion of Churchill.
two nations - or two The then First Lord of
men? When Winston the Admiralty, he told
Churchill entered the FDR, was ‘...ruthless
office of Prime and scheming’ and was
Minister, the UK had in touch with an
already entered World American clique eager
War Two. to embroil the United
Before Churchill’s States in Europe’s war,
premiership, Roosevelt ‘...notably, certain
had secretively been in strong Jewish leaders’.
regular communication Kennedy also visited
with him, since their the State Department
correspondence had on 1 February 1940, to
begun in September see another visiting
1939, at the very start ambassador, William C
of World War Two. ‘Bill’ Bullitt, FDR’s
In these supposedly envoy to France. There,
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (b.30
private letters, the two Kennedy interrupted an
November 1874, d. 24 January 1965) was a British
had been discussing interview that Bullitt
politician, statesman, army officer, and writer, who
ways in which the was having with Joseph
was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from
United States might M. Patterson and Doris
1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.
support Britain in their Fleeson, respectively
war effort, but details of this had been passed the publisher and Washington reporter of the
over to the Germans by Tyler Kent, a spy in the New York Daily News. Bullitt later described
US Embassy in London. his astonishment at Kennedy’s bad manners to
It seems that things had not always been Interior Secretary Harold Ickes. According to
like that. Roosevelt had only met Churchill accounts, Kennedy was saying that Germany
face-to-face once previously as he is supposed would win, that everything in France and Great
to have confided to Joseph P Kennedy, on his Britain would go to hell, and that his one
appointment to the post of ambassador to Great interest was in saving his money for his
Britain: ‘I have always disliked him since that children. He began to sharply criticise the
time I went to England in 1918. He acted like President whereupon Bullitt took issue. The
a stinker at a dinner I attended, lording it over argument became so heated that Patterson and
us’. Fleeson discreetly withdrew. Kennedy
Joseph Kennedy was not to remain popular continued to berate the President, and Bullitt
for long with FDR, especially with antics like told him that he was disloyal and that he had
this. Early in 1939, Joe Kennedy angered FDR no right to say what he had before Patterson
by responding positively to a request from and Fleeson. Kennedy’s language offended
Helmuth Wohlthat, an economic advisor to Bullitt, to which Kennedy supposedly
Reichmarschall Hermann Goring who responded that he ‘...would say what he
requested a meeting with Kennedy to consider goddamned pleased before whom he
an American gold loan to Germany. Kennedy’s goddamned liked’.
request to see the man was turned down by a When Winston Churchill assumed the
horrified FDR. Kennedy repeated the request, office of Prime Minister of Great Britain on 10
and again the President refused. Kennedy then, May 1940, Roosevelt was nearing the end of
in direct contradiction of FDR’s orders, his second term and making considerations of
allowed Wohlthat to meet with him in London. seeking election to an unprecedented third
In December, after the war had begun, term. He would make no public
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