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Plan C: The Cold War Plan Which Would Have Brought the US Under Martial Law
v3rgEz writes with this story of a top secret Cold War plan which would have brought the U.S. under martial law. Starting on April 19, 1956, the federal government practiced and planned for a near-doomsday scenario known as Plan C. When activated, Plan C would have brought the United States under martial law, rounded up over ten thousand individuals connected to 'subversive' organizations, implemented a censorship board, and prepared the country for life after nuclear attack. There was no Plan A or B....Details of this program were distributed to each FBI field office. Over the following months and years, Plan C would be adjusted as drills and meetings found holes in the defensive strategy: Communications were more closely held, authority was apparently more dispersed, and certain segments of the government, such as the U.S. Attorneys, had trouble actually delineating who was responsible for what. Bureau employees were encouraged to prepare their families for the worst, but had to keep secret the more in-depth plans for what the government would do if war did break out. Families were given a phone number and city for where the relocated agency locations would be, but not the exact location.
It was part of a series of contingency plans, each labeled with a different color, for various potential conflicts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_color-coded_war_plans
Some examples:
Green - Mexico
Orange - Japan
Black - Germany
Gold - France
Yellow - China
Probably the most interesting (and dangerous) alternate history was War Plan Red-Orange, which postulated a war against Britain and Japan, who were allied at the time.
The most appropriate for this subject, though, would be War Plan White, which dealt with domestic uprising and civil disturbances.
But things still get out.
What's changed are the targets. In the '50s it was the leftists. Now the government targets right-wing groups.
For example, a recent training exercise involved "handling" a right wing group called "Free Americans against Socialist Tyranny".
They don't actually exist, but the government is so paranoid of right wingers that they make up groups to train against.
Because short of the martial law of troops in the streets with body armor and M16's..... Oh wait... Our COPS have those now.
Well they dont have assult vehicles...... Wait....
Nor do they have grenade launchers...... Welll.....
So basically they have been planning on the shit we have today for decades?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Although a war with Britain/Canada seems implausible in hindsight, it was not always considered so unlikely. A decade prior to WW1, many British strategists considered rising American naval power to be the biggest threat to their empire. And they assumed that in a 20th century conflict with America, they could always rely on their historically ally, Germany.
Well, considering the armed insurrection at Ferguson, and the raft of armed "activists" ready to confront law enforcement while using peaceful protesters as human shields while burning the property of completely innocent people to the ground, it would be extremely bizarre if they weren't running training exercises. One could say that they would be negligent if they weren't...
They better be better plans than the last two times the USA tried it and got its butt kicked (1175, 1812). :-) Or is it six times the USA has invaded?
http://mentalfloss.com/article...
Of course, if the USA really has to invade Canada, like say, if lots more oil is discovered there and the USA political system need to redirect who gets the profits from it, or if Canada experiments with a "basic income" again and the USA fears "contagion", then everyone will be screaming if there are no plans. :-) See also Chomsky on: ... As far as American business is concerned, Nicaragua could disappear and nobody would notice. The same is true of El Salvador. But both have been subjected to murderous assaults by the US, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and many billions of dollars. There's a reason for that. The weaker and poorer a country is, the more dangerous it is as an example. If a tiny, poor country like Grenada can succeed in bringing about a better life for its people, some other place that has more resources will ask, "why not us?" ... "
"The Threat of a Good Example"
http://www.chomsky.info/books/...
"No country is exempt from U.S. intervention, no matter how unimportant. In fact, it's the weakest, poorest countries that often arouse the greatest hysteria.
I guess Canada is safe for now because it is not weak and poor?
It's a no win situation making such plans or not if your job is to consider every eventuality.
Still, sometimes the best way to win is not to play. This was written by a Marine Major General and two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Smedley Butler:
http://www.warisaracket.org/ra...
"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket."
Consider, for example, the Strv 103 tank that Sweden designed. They are designed for home defense on Sweden's mountainous terrain, not going abroad. ... The Strv 103 was designed and manufactured in Sweden. It was developed in the 1950s and was the first main battle tank to use a turbine engine. The result was a very low-profile design with an emphasis on defence and heightened crew protection level. ..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
"It was known for its unconventional turretless design, with a fixed gun traversed by engaging the tracks and elevated by adjusting the hull suspension.
That design reflects Major General Butler's point.
Although they have since gone more conventional in their designs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
The really laughable thing about all these plans is that, as was said in "Brittle Power" (or maybe "Energy, Vulnerability, and War"), quoting from memory from 1980s books, "a troop of boy scouts could shut down the USA's vital energy infrastructure" given the fragility of oil pipelines where every segment is essentially a single point of fail
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Europe was tired out and broke after WWII. The US probably did some nudging, but the reality was that there was a new world after WWII and true empires of the 19th Century sort were no longer supportable, if they ever really were. Europe was a literal wreck, and the UK was broke.
In the end, they exhausted themselves and ended their own empires through their bad decisions.
And yet somehow we survived with these 10,000 people with connections to subversive organizations roaming freely in our midst. Amazing.
Dear ALL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES: *THIS* is why we don't want you to have infinite surveillance. Because those 10,000 people you had files on did EXACTLY NOTHING. You want to wiretap someone, go get some ACTUAL FUCKING EVIDENCE. Not just "he read this book and knows this guy and likes to encrypt his files."
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Really? What about the Weavers where this asshole killed an innocent woman by blowing fragments of her skull all over her infant.
Of course, instead of starting a fucking firefight, they could have caught Randy Weaver when he drove into town for errands, but that's not sexy, now is it?
Sorry son, try again. The government is the one that's out of control.