Mainland invasion of the United States

Last updated April 21, 2019

Capture and burning of Washington by the British in 1814 BurningofWashington1814.jpg — Capture and burning of Washington by the British in 1814

The concept of a mainland invasion of the United States relates to military theory and doctrine which address the feasibility and practicality of a foreign power attacking and successfully invading the contiguous United States of America. The United States has been physically invaded a few times, once during the War of 1812 and several times during the Border War. During the Cold War, most of the U.S. military strategy was geared towards repelling an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union.^[1]

Contiguous United States 48 states of the United States apart from Alaska and Hawaii

The contiguous United States or officially the conterminous United States consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states on the continent of North America. The terms exclude the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii, and all other off-shore insular areas. These differ from the related term continental United States which includes Alaska but excludes Hawaii and insular territories.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their respective allies from June 1812 to February 1815. Historians in Britain often see it as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars; in the United States and Canada, it is seen as a war in its own right.

Early events

The military history of the United States began with a foreign power on U.S. soil, the British Army during the American Revolutionary War. Following American independence, the next occurrence of an attack on American soil was during the War of 1812, also with Britain, and also the first and only time since the end of the Revolutionary War in which a foreign power occupied the American capital (the then capital city of Philadelphia was also occupied by the British during the Revolution).

The military history of the United States spans a period of over two centuries. During those years, the United States evolved from a new nation fighting Great Britain for independence (1775–1783), through the monumental American Civil War (1861–1865) and, after collaborating in triumph during World War II (1941–1945), to the world's sole remaining superpower from the late 20th century to present.

The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of British Armed Forces. As of 2018, the British Army comprises just over 81,500 trained regular (full-time) personnel and just over 27,000 trained reserve (part-time) personnel.

American Revolutionary War War between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies, which won independence as the United States of America

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was an 18th-century war between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence as the United States of America.

The American Civil War may be seen as an invasion of home territory to some extent, with both the Confederate and Union armies each making forays into the other side's home territory. After the Civil War, the threat of an invasion from a foreign power was small, and it was not until the 20th century that any real military strategy was developed to address the possibility of an attack on America.^[2]

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The most studied and written about episode in U.S. history, the Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

The Confederate States Army (C.S.A.) was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Davis was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War. He had also been a United States Senator from Mississippi and U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. On March 1, 1861, on behalf of the Confederate government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at Charleston, South Carolina, where South Carolina state militia besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, held by a small U.S. Army garrison. By March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress expanded the provisional forces and established a more permanent Confederate States Army.

During the American Civil War, the Union Army referred to the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. Also known as the Federal Army, it proved essential to the preservation of the United States of America as a working, viable republic.

In 1915, the Liberating Army of Races and Peoples attempted to execute its Plan of San Diego to reconquer the southwestern United States, setting off the Bandit War and conducting raids into Texas from across the Mexican Border.

The Plan of San Diego was drafted in San Diego, Texas, in 1915 by a group of unknown Mexican rebels, who hoped to create social unrest and to obtain political and economic gains. Raids resulting from attempts to implement the plan led to the Bandit War with the United States.

The Bandit War, or Bandit Wars, was a series of raids in Texas, started in 1915 before finally culminating in 1919, that were carried out by Mexican rebels from the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Chihuahua. Prior to 1914, the Carrancista faction was responsible for most attacks along the border, but in January 1915 rebels known as Seditionistas drafted the Plan of San Diego and began launching their own raids. The plan called for a race war, to rid the American border states of their Anglo-American population, and the annexation of the border states to Mexico. However, the Seditionistas were never able to launch a full-scale invasion of the United States so they resorted to conducting small raids into Texas. Much of the fighting involved the Texas Ranger Division, though the United States Army also engaged in small unit actions with bands of Seditionist raiders.

On March 9, 1916, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and his Villistas invaded Columbus, New Mexico in the Border War's Battle of Columbus, triggering the Pancho Villa Expedition in response, led by Major General John J. Pershing.^[3]

Francisco "Pancho" Villa was a Mexican revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution.

Columbus is a village in Luna County, New Mexico, United States, about 3 miles north of the Mexican border. It is considered a place of historical interest, as the scene of the attack in 1916 by Mexican revolutionary leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa that caused America to send 10,000 troops there in the punitive Mexican Expedition. The population was 1,664 at the 2010 census.

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The Battle of Columbus, March 9, 1916, began as a raid conducted by Pancho Villa's Division of the North on the small United States border town of Columbus, New Mexico, located 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the border. The raid escalated into a full-scale battle between Villistas and the United States Army. Villa himself led the assault, only to be driven back into Mexico by elements of the 13th Cavalry Regiment stationed at the town. The attack angered Americans and President Woodrow Wilson ordered the Punitive Expedition in which the US Army invaded Mexico in an unsuccessful attempt to capture General Villa.

European threats

Until the early 20th century, the greatest potential threat to attack the United States was seen as the British Empire. To that end, military strategy was developed to not only forestall a British attack, but also attack and occupy Canada. "War Plan Red" was specifically designed to deal with a British attack on the United States and a subsequent invasion of Canada. Similar plans^[4] existed for a 20th-century war with Mexico, although the ability of the Mexican Army to attack and occupy American soil was considered negligible, as demonstrated by the Mexican reluctance to accept the provisions of the Zimmermann Telegram. Mexican rebels led by Pancho Villa did briefly invade the U.S. on supply raids during World War I.

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered 35,500,000 km² (13,700,000 sq mi), 24% of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, the phrase "the empire on which the sun never sets" was often used to describe the British Empire, because its expanse around the globe meant that the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories.

Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan Red was one of the color-coded war plans created by the United States Army in the late 1920s and early 1930s to estimate the requirements for a hypothetical war with the United Kingdom. War Plan Red discussed the potential for fighting a war with the British Empire and outlined those steps necessary to defend the Atlantic coast against any attempted invasion of the United States. It further discussed fighting a two-front war with both Japan and Britain simultaneously.

The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and is the largest of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army.

In 1921, Canadian Lieutenant Colonel James "Buster" Sutherland Brown drafted what can be called the Canadian version of War Plan Red, Defence Scheme No. 1. According to the plan, Canada would invade the United States as quickly as possible if evidence of an American invasion was found. The Canadians would gain a foothold in the northern U.S. to allow time for Canada to prepare its war effort and receive aid from Britain. They would also destroy key bridges and railroads. The plan had detractors, who saw it as unrealistic, but also supporters who believed it could conceivably have worked.

On the opposite side of the Atlantic, Imperial German plans for the invasion of the United States were maintained from 1897 to 1906, but were not seriously considered because the German Empire had insufficient resources to carry them out successfully. Early versions planned to engage the United States Atlantic Fleet off Norfolk, Virginia, followed by shore bombardment of eastern cities. Later versions envisioned a land invasion of New York City and Boston. The foreign policy of Kaiser Wilhelm II, sought to limit the United States' ability to interfere in European affairs, rather than as a territorial conquest.

World War II

During World War II, the defense of the continental United States was part of the American theater. The American Campaign Medal was awarded to military personnel who served in the United States in official military duties.

Nazi Germany

When war was declared between Germany and the U.S. in 1941, the German High Command immediately recognized that current German military strength would be unable to attack or invade the United States directly. Military strategy instead focused on submarine warfare, with U-boats striking American shipping in an expanded Battle of the Atlantic, particularly an all-out assault on U.S. merchant shipping during Operation Drumbeat.

Adolf Hitler dismissed the threat of America, stating that the country had no racial purity and thus no fighting strength, further quoted that "The American public is made up of Jews and Negroes".^[5] German military and economic leaders had far more realistic views, with some such as Albert Speer recognizing the enormous productive capacity of America's factories as well as the rich food supplies which could be harvested from the American heartland.^[6]

In 1942, German military leaders did briefly investigate and consider the possibility of a cross Atlantic attack against the U.S.—most cogently expressed with the RLM's Amerika Bomber trans-Atlantic range bomber design competition, first issued in the spring of 1942—proceeded forward with only five airworthy prototype aircraft created between two of the competitors, but this plan had to be abandoned due to both the lack of staging bases in the Western Hemisphere, and Germany's own rapidly decreasing capacity to produce such aircraft as the war wore on. Thereafter, Germany's greatest hope of an attack on America was to wait to see the result of that nation's war with Japan. By 1944, with U-Boat losses soaring and with the occupation of Greenland and Iceland, it was clear to the German military leaders that the dwindling German armed forces had no further hope to attack the United States directly. In the end, German military strategy was in fact geared toward surrendering to America, with many of the Eastern Front battles fought solely for the purpose of escaping the advance of the Red Army and surrendering instead to the Western Allies.^[7]

One of the only officially recognized landings of German soldiers on American soil was during Operation Pastorius, in which eight German sabotage agents were landed in the United States (one team landed in New York, the other in Florida) by U-Boats. The team was quickly captured and put on trial as spies, rather than prisoners-of-war, due to the nature of their assignment. After the court found them guilty of espionage, six German agents were executed in the electric chair at the Washington D.C. jail. The other two were not put to death and instead received prison terms because they willingly turned on their comrades by defecting to the United States and told the FBI about the mission's plan. In 1948, three years after World War II ended, the two were freed and returned to Germany.

The Luftwaffe began planning for possible trans-Atlantic strategic bombing missions early in World War II, with Albert Speer stating in his own post-war book, Spandau: The Secret Diaries , that Adolf Hitler was fascinated with the idea of New York City in flames. Before his Machtergreifung in January 1933, Hitler had already, in 1928, thought that the United States would be the next serious foe the future Third Reich would need to confront, after the Soviet Union.^[8] The proposal by the RLM to Germany's military aviation firms for the Amerika Bomber project was issued to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring in the late spring of 1942, about six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, for the competition to produce such a strategic bomber design, with only Junkers and Messerschmitt each building a few airworthy prototype airframes before the war's end.

Imperial Japan

The feasibility of a full-scale attack on the continental United States by Imperial Japan was considered negligible, with Japan possessing neither the manpower nor logistical ability to do so.^[9] Minoru Genda of the Imperial Japanese Navy advocated invading Hawaii after attacking Pearl Harbor, believing that Japan could use Hawaii as a base to threaten the continental United States, and perhaps as a negotiating tool for ending the war.^[10] The American public in the first months after the attack on Pearl Harbor feared a Japanese landing on the West Coast of the United States and reacted with alarm to a rumored raid in the Battle of Los Angeles.

The only recognized Japanese invasion of the U.S. during the war was the attack and subsequent occupation of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska; the Japanese were driven out entirely a year later between May and August 1943 by U.S. and Canadian forces. It was the first time since the War of 1812 that American soil was under occupation by a belligerent power. Japan also conducted air attacks through the use of fire balloons. Six American civilians were killed in such attacks; Japan also launched two manned air attacks on Oregon as well as two incidents of Japanese submarines shelling the U.S. West Coast.^[11]

Cold War

During the Cold War, the primary threat of an attack on the United States was viewed to be from the Soviet Union. In such an attack, nuclear warfare was projected to almost certainly happen, mainly in the form of intercontinental ballistic missile attacks as well as Soviet Navy launches of SLBMs at U.S. coastal cities.^[12]

The first Cold War strategy against a Soviet attack on the United States was developed in 1948, made into even firmer policy after the Soviet development of the nuclear weapon in 1949. By 1950, the United States had developed a defense plan to repel a Soviet nuclear bomber force through the use of interceptors and anti-aircraft missiles, while at the same time launching its own bomber fleet into Soviet airspace from bases in Alaska and Europe. By the end of the 1950s, both Soviet and U.S. strategy included nuclear submarines and long range nuclear missiles, both of which could strike in as little as ten to thirty minutes while bomber forces took as long as four to six hours to reach their targets. The concept thus developed of the nuclear triad where all three weapons platforms (land based, submarine, and bomber) would be coordinated in unison for a devastating first strike, followed by a counterstrike, accompanied by "mopping up" missions of nuclear bombers.

American nuclear warfare planning was nearly put to the test during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The subsequent blockade of Cuba also added a fourth element into American nuclear strategy, this being surface ships and the possibility of low yield nuclear attacks against deployed fleets. Indeed, the United States had already tested the feasibility of nuclear attacks on ships under Operation Crossroads. Reportedly, during the Cuban missile crisis, one Soviet submarine nearly launched a nuclear torpedo at an American warship, yet the three officers required to initiate the launch (the Captain, Executive Officer Vasily Arkhipov, and the Political Officer) could not agree to do so.

By the 1970s, the concept of mutually assured destruction led to an American nuclear strategy which would remain relatively consistent until the end of the Cold War.^[13]

Modern era

In the theater of 21st century warfare, United States strategic planners have been forced to contend with various threats to the United States ranging from direct attack, terrorism, as well as unconventional warfare such as a cyber war or economic attack on American investments and financial stability.

Direct attack

Several modern-day armies operate nuclear weapons with ranges in the thousands of kilometers. The U.S. is therefore vulnerable to nuclear attack by powers such as the United Kingdom,^[14] Russia, China,^[15] and France. However, the UK and France are both members of NATO and so an attack on the U.S. by either of these states is very unlikely.

The top U.S. military command overseeing the defense of the continental United States is the United States Northern Command.

Cyber and economic attacks

The risk of cyber-attacks on civilian, government, and military computer targets was brought to light after China became suspected of using government-funded hackers to disrupt American banking systems, defense industries, telecommunication systems, power grids, utility controls, air traffic and train traffic control systems, as well as certain military systems such as C4ISR, and ballistic missile launch systems.^[16]

Attacks on the U.S. economy, such as efforts to devalue the dollar or corner trade markets to isolate the United States, are currently considered another method by which a foreign power may seek to attack the United States.

Geographic feasibility

Many experts have considered the United States to be entirely uninvadable, because of the country's major industries, reliable and fast supply lines, large geographical size, population size, difficult regional features, armed citizenry, and strong military force. For example, the deserts in the Southwestern United States and the Great Lakes in the Midwestern United States insulate the major U.S. population centers from threats of invasion. An invasion from outside of North America would require long supply chains across the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean, for a great reduction of overall power. Notably, no nation-state of sufficient power to threaten the U.S. exists on the North American continent: Canada and Mexico generally enjoy friendly relations with the U.S. and are militarily weak in comparison.^[17]^[18]

Military expert Dylan Lehrke noted that the amphibious-assault on either the West Coast or East Coast of the United States is simply too insignificant to get a beachhead on both coasts. Even if the foreign power managed to go undetected in light of modern surveillance capability, they still could not build up a force of any size before being pushed back into the sea. Thus, such an invasion would have to come from the land borders through Canada or Mexico. While an attack from Mexico can be possible, California and Texas have the largest concentration of defense industries and military bases in the country, providing an effective deterrent from any Mexico-based attack. An attack launched from Canada on the Midwestern or Western United States would be limited to light infantry and would fail to take over population centers or other important strategic points, due to the U.S. having national parks there. This provides U.S. military personnel or civilian fighters an advantage to conduct guerrilla warfare.^[19]

In popular culture

A number of films and other related media have dealt with fictitious portrayals of an attack against the United States by a foreign power. One of the more well-known films is Red Dawn , detailing an attack against the U.S. by the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Nicaragua. A 2012 remake detailed a similar attack launched by North Korea and an ultranationalist-controlled Russia. Other U.S. invasion films include Invasion U.S.A. , Olympus Has Fallen , and White House Down , as well as The Day After and By Dawn's Early Light , both of which detail nuclear war between U.S. and Soviet forces. In Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle , the United States is occupied by both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, separated by a neutral zone, after invasions of both the West Coast and the East Coast.

A terrorist occupation of Washington, D.C. was the subject of a G.I. Joe cartoon episode, when Serpentor led Cobra forces to occupy the American capital. A terrorist occupation of the capital was also seen in G.I. Joe: Retaliation .

In the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 , Russia invades several parts of the United States, including Washington, D.C., in retaliation to a supposedly U.S.-assisted terrorist attack on a Russian airport. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the battle spreads to New York. The video game Homefront depicts an invasion of the U.S. by a unified Korea while Homefront: The Revolution depicts North Korea invading and occupying the United States. In the real time strategy game World in Conflict , Soviet forces invade and occupy the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. In the game Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is an alternate universe of the Axis Powers winning World War II which results Nazi Germany and Japan to invade the United States in 1953. Bethesda Softworks's Wolfenstein: The New Order and The New Colossus are set in a world where Germany has won World War II, including a mainland invasion of U.S. after a nuclear bomb hit New York City. The 2003 video game Freedom Fighters is set in an alternate history where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, conquered most of the world and has invaded the United States from both Alaska and New York City. In the video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 the Soviet Union launches a massive invasion of the United States, with an emphasis on deploying psychic beacons in order to mind control the population.

Related Research Articles

The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.

Nuclear warfare is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is used to inflict damage on the enemy. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can produce destruction in a much shorter time and can have a long-lasting radiological warfare result. A major nuclear exchange would have long-term effects, primarily from the fallout released, and could also lead to a "nuclear winter" that could last for decades, centuries, or even millennia after the initial attack. Some analysts dismiss the nuclear winter hypothesis, and calculate that even with nuclear weapon stockpiles at Cold War highs, although there would be billions of casualties, billions more rural people would nevertheless survive. However, others have argued that secondary effects of a nuclear holocaust, such as nuclear famine and societal collapse, would cause almost every human on Earth to starve to death.

In nuclear strategy, a first strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force. First strike capability is a country's ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation while the opposing side is left unable to continue war. The preferred methodology is to attack the opponent's strategic nuclear weapon facilities, command and control sites, and storage depots first. The strategy is called counterforce.

Mutual assured destruction or mutually assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. It is based on the theory of deterrence, which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons. The strategy is a form of Nash equilibrium in which, once armed, neither side has any incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm.

World War III and the Third World War are names given to a hypothetical third worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at least as early as 1941. Some have applied it loosely to refer to limited or smaller conflicts such as the Cold War or the War on Terror, while others assumed that such a conflict would surpass prior world wars both in its scope and its destructive impact.

An invasion is a military offensive in which large parts of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering; liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a territory; forcing the partition of a country; altering the established government or gaining concessions from said government; or a combination thereof. An invasion can be the cause of a war, be a part of a larger strategy to end a war, or it can constitute an entire war in itself. Due to the large scale of the operations associated with invasions, they are usually strategic in planning and execution.

Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive power from nuclear fission or combined fission and fusion reactions. Building on scientific breakthroughs made during the 1930s, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada collaborated during World War II, in what was called the Manhattan Project, to counter the suspected Nazi German atomic bomb project. In August 1945, two fission bombs were dropped on Japan, standing to date as the only use of nuclear weapons in combat. The Soviet Union started development shortly thereafter with their own atomic bomb project, and not long after that both countries developed even more powerful fusion weapons known as "hydrogen bombs".

A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project or person. Names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial counter-industrial espionage to protect secret projects and the like from business rivals, or to give names to projects whose marketing name has not yet been determined. Another reason for the use of names and phrases in the military is that they transmit with a lower level of cumulative errors over a walkie-talkie or radio link than actual names.

Technology played a significant role in World War II. Some of the technologies used during the war were developed during the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s, much was developed in response to needs and lessons learned during the war, while others were beginning to be developed as the war ended. Many wars had major effects on the technologies that we use in our daily lives. However, compared to previous wars, World War II had the greatest effect on the technology and devices that are used today. Technology also played a greater role in the conduct of World War II than in any other war in history, and had a critical role in its final outcome.

The GIUK gap is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean that forms a naval choke point. Its name is an acronym for Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, the gap being the open ocean between these three landmasses. The term is typically used in relation to military topics.

Air supremacy and air superiority is the concept of your side in war having a better/larger air force than your enemies. Control of the air is the aerial equivalent of command of the sea.

The nuclear arms race was an arms race competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War. During this period, in addition to the American and Soviet nuclear stockpiles, other countries developed nuclear weapons, though none engaged in warhead production on nearly the same scale as the two superpowers.

The Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) was the United States' general plan for nuclear war from 1961 to 2003. The SIOP gave the President of the United States a range of targeting options, and described launch procedures and target sets against which nuclear weapons would be launched. The plan integrated the capabilities of the nuclear triad of strategic bombers, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), and sea-based submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). The SIOP was a highly classified document, and was one of the most secret and sensitive issues in U.S. national security policy.

A decapitation strike is a military strategy aimed at removing the leadership or command and control of a hostile government or group. The strategy of shattering or defeating an enemy by eliminating its military and political leadership has long been utilized in warfare.

Massive retaliation, also known as a massive response or massive deterrence, is a military doctrine and nuclear strategy in which a state commits itself to retaliate in much greater force in the event of an attack.

Flexible response was a defense strategy implemented by John F. Kennedy in 1961 to address the Kennedy administration's skepticism of Dwight Eisenhower's New Look and its policy of massive retaliation. Flexible response calls for mutual deterrence at strategic, tactical, and conventional levels, giving the United States the capability to respond to aggression across the spectrum of war, not limited only to nuclear arms.

This is a timeline of the main events of the Cold War, a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc and powers in the Eastern Bloc.

A nuclear triad is a three-pronged military force structure that consists of land-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-missile-armed submarines and strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs and missiles. Specifically, these components are land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and strategic bombers. The purpose of having this three-branched nuclear capability is to significantly reduce the possibility that an enemy could destroy all of a nation's nuclear forces in a first-strike attack. This, in turn, ensures a credible threat of a second strike, and thus increases a nation's nuclear deterrence. The main theory of creating the nuclear triad was to spread the assortment of weapons across various platforms, making military forces more likely to survive an attack and able to respond to a first strike successfully. The military strategy of distributing weapons over the three platforms developed as an answer to countries' concerns when surviving a nuclear strike. This would ensure that nuclear forces could survive a first strike and be deployed in a retaliatory strike, resulting in "mutual assured destruction."

<i>First Strike</i> (1979 film) 1979 film

First Strike is a 1979 film created by KRON-TV and Chronicle Publishing Company under the broadcast division name "Chronicle Broadcasting Company" in partnership with the United States Department of Defense and the RAND Corporation that discusses the United States armed forces strategy for dealing with nuclear warfare. The film became far better known when various clips were edited into the 1983 TV film The Day After.

Air force military branch of service primarily concerned with aerial warfare

An air force, also known in some countries as an aerospace force or air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army or navy. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions, and providing support to land and naval forces often in the form of aerial reconnaissance and close air support.

References

↑ Haslam, Jonathan, Russia's Cold War: From the October Revolution to the Fall of the Wall (2011), Yale University Press
↑ Merry, Robert W., A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent, Simon & Schuster (2009)
↑ Katz, Friedrich,. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford University Press (1998)
↑ "571. War Plan Green". research.archives.gov. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
↑ Weikart, Richard, "From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany", Palgrave Macmillan (2006)
↑ Speer, Albert, "Inside the Third Reich", Macmillan (New York and Toronto), 1970
↑ Toland, John, "The Last 100 Days (Final Days of WWII in Europe)"; Barker – First edition (1965)
↑ Hillgruber, Andreas Germany and the Two World Wars, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1981 pp. 50–51
↑ "Why didn't the Japanese invade Pearl Harbor". www.researcheratlarge.com.
↑ Caravaggio, Angelo N. (Winter 2014). ""Winning" the Pacific War". Naval War College Review. 67 (1): 85–118. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14.
↑ "Travel Oregon : Lodging & Attractions OR : Oregon Interactive Corp". web.oregon.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-16.
↑ Sagan, Carl, The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War, W. W. Norton & Company (1984)
↑ Von Neumann J. & Wiener N., "From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death", MIT Press (1982), p. 261
↑ "Brown move to cut UK nuclear subs". 23 September 2009 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
↑ See DF-31.
↑ "Hacker group found in China, linked to big cyberattacks: Symantec". NBC News.
↑ "The United States' Geographic Challenge". Stratfor. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
↑ "How Geography Gave The US Power". Wendover Productions.
↑ We Asked a Military Expert if All the World's Armies Could Shut Down the US

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[1] Haslam, Jonathan, Russia's Cold War: From the October Revolution to the Fall of the Wall (2011), Yale University Press

[2] Merry, Robert W., A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent, Simon & Schuster (2009)

[3] Katz, Friedrich,. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford University Press (1998)

[4] "571. War Plan Green". research.archives.gov. Retrieved 2017-01-04.

[5] Weikart, Richard, "From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany", Palgrave Macmillan (2006)

[6] Speer, Albert, "Inside the Third Reich", Macmillan (New York and Toronto), 1970

[7] Toland, John, "The Last 100 Days (Final Days of WWII in Europe)"; Barker – First edition (1965)

[8] Hillgruber, Andreas Germany and the Two World Wars, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1981 pp. 50–51

[9] "Why didn't the Japanese invade Pearl Harbor". www.researcheratlarge.com.

[caravaggio2014-10] Caravaggio, Angelo N. (Winter 2014). ""Winning" the Pacific War". Naval War College Review. 67 (1): 85–118. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14.

[11] "Travel Oregon : Lodging & Attractions OR : Oregon Interactive Corp". web.oregon.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-16.

[12] Sagan, Carl, The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War, W. W. Norton & Company (1984)

[13] Von Neumann J. & Wiener N., "From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death", MIT Press (1982), p. 261

[14] "Brown move to cut UK nuclear subs". 23 September 2009 – via news.bbc.co.uk.

[15] See DF-31.

[16] "Hacker group found in China, linked to big cyberattacks: Symantec". NBC News.

[17] "The United States' Geographic Challenge". Stratfor. Retrieved 3 June 2015.

[18] "How Geography Gave The US Power". Wendover Productions.

[19] We Asked a Military Expert if All the World's Armies Could Shut Down the US