The world’s powers have to be ready for anything. After all, war could erupt at any moment, and they must stay prepared to fight. That’s why it’s highly probable every nation on the planet has a contingency plan to seize each of its neighbours, just in case.
10 War Plan Red: The American Plan To Invade Canada
There was a period when the United States wasn’t entirely sure which side it would pick in World War II. Officials even mulled the idea of striking at Britain first, and that opening move would have involved an invasion of Canada.
If Britain decided to attack the U.S., the Americans feared the British would set up forces in Canada. To pre‑empt that, they drafted a plan to strike Canada before the British could use it.
The objective was to seize Halifax, denying the British a vital port. To accelerate the takeover, they contemplated bombarding the city with poisonous gas, then pushing on to Niagara Falls to capture its power stations.
From there, the operation would turn into a full‑scale invasion, with troops marching through Quebec, Winnipeg and the nickel mines of western Ontario. Simultaneously, the Navy would swing south to occupy Jamaica, the Bahamas and Bermuda. With British America in their hands, they expected Britain to plead for peace.
The only snag was the possibility of Canada declaring neutrality. If Canadians tried to stay pacifist, the plan called for forceful seizure of ports and territory, ensuring the U.S. would not leave them untouched.
9 Defense Scheme Number One: The Canadian Plan To Invade the US
It sounds wild that the United States drafted a plan to invade Canada, but the reverse is even stranger: Canada had its own secret scheme, and they actually conceived it first.
By 1921, Canadian strategists were already fretting that the Americans might launch an attack. They prepared a pre‑emptive counter‑strike, even sending an officer across the border to scout vulnerable points.
Canada never intended to permanently conquer the United States. Their goal was simply to tie down American forces long enough for Britain to intervene. The plan called for troops to move down the West Coast, while a Quebec contingent would seize Albany and a Maritime force would take Maine.
After catching the U.S. off‑guard, they would retreat across the border, leaving a scorched‑earth trail—bridges, railways, factories, farms—all reduced to ashes, crippling the American war machine and buying time for allies.
If the scheme ever unfolded, the Canadians believed they could count on Japan, France and Mexico to join the effort, each eager to see the “modern Yank” humbled.
8 Operation Dropshot: The American Plan To Nuke The Soviet Union
If history had taken a different turn, the Cold War might never have been “cold.” Instead, it could have ignited into a full‑blown nuclear apocalypse that would have erased Russia from the map.
In the early days, the United States was the sole holder of atomic weapons and drafted multiple plans to unleash them on the USSR. One of the most aggressive proposals called for a sudden strike of 300 nuclear bombs on 200 Soviet targets, followed by a swift land invasion that planners assumed would be short‑lived.
The U.S. even penciled in a specific date—January 1, 1957—to unleash this nuclear barrage. The plan was shelved only after the Soviets successfully tested their own atomic bomb, which made the American leadership rethink a direct nuclear assault.
7 Seven Days To The River Rhine: The Soviet Plan To Nuke Half Of Europe
The Soviets, of course, had their own terrifying blueprints. One document from 1979, now public, outlined a scenario that would have ignited World War III.
The premise assumed NATO would launch a nuclear first strike against Poland, a premise so outlandish that many suspect it was merely a pretext to justify a massive Soviet response. Regardless, the USSR prepared to hit NATO hard.
Under the plan, Soviet forces would unleash 7.5 megaton‑worth of atomic weapons on targets across West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, then push troops forward to seize everything up to the Rhine River.
The Soviets anticipated massive casualties. They expected cities like Prague and Warsaw to be obliterated by the nuclear blasts, and even plotted a suicidal mission for the Polish army. Within a week, they projected over two million Polish deaths, sparking a new global conflict.
6 The Nazi Plan To Invade Japan
The Nazis never trusted that their alliance with Japan would endure forever. Their partnership was a marriage of convenience, and once the war ended, they expected a showdown between the “white” and “yellow” races.
Hitler told his staff that this clash wouldn’t happen for a century, but he still ordered preparations. Heinrich Himmler was tasked with readying the SS for a future war against Japan, fearing that peace would make German troops soft.
To keep the SS battle‑ready, Himmler ordered relentless racial campaigns and even contemplated posting troops to the icy reaches of Siberia as a form of hardening. He also envisioned a massive population‑building program, urging Germans to breed like a “botanical garden” to match the projected billions of Japanese soldiers.
5 National Redoubt: The Swiss Plan To Stop Being Neutral
Switzerland wasn’t wholly committed to perpetual neutrality. In 1940, surrounded by Axis forces, they seriously contemplated abandoning their peaceful stance.
Realizing the Axis could turn on them at any moment, the Swiss began pulling troops away from the borders and relocating them deep into the Alpine mountains, constructing a chain of fortified bunkers and strongholds.
The Swiss also staged war‑games, reenacting battles happening in neighboring nations, and deliberately displayed these preparations to the Axis powers, hoping to send a clear warning that any invasion would be costly.
This wasn’t mere paranoia. Nazi Germany had its own secret operation—Operation Tannenbaum—aimed at conquering Switzerland. Hitler famously described the neutral country as “a pimple on the face of Europe.” The Swiss Alpine defenses were precisely the deterrent they hoped would halt a German onslaught.
4 The Turkish Plan To Invade Syria
Most of the plans listed above are decades old, but that doesn’t mean modern states have stopped crafting invasion blueprints. They simply keep newer schemes under wraps, and occasionally, leaks happen—as they did in 2014 when Turkey’s plot to invade Syria surfaced on YouTube.
In the leaked recording, Turkish ministers discuss a potential terrorist attack on the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the father of the Ottoman Empire’s founder. Rather than fearing the attack, one minister argued it could serve as a perfect pretext for a larger military incursion.
Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan even suggested staging a fake attack if none occurred, saying, “I’ll send four men from Syria, if that’s what it takes.” He insisted legitimacy could be manufactured, giving Turkey a convenient excuse to send troops into Syria.
3 The Israeli Plan To Invade Iran
Between 2010 and 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak convened at least three times to plot a full‑scale invasion of Iran. Their plans nearly came to fruition, but IDF Chief Gabi Ashkenazi stepped in and halted the operation.
Three leaked recordings reveal Netanyahu and Barak hashing out the details. In 2010, they were close to securing ministerial backing, but Ashkenazi delivered a passionate speech about the human cost, persuading them to pause.
Undeterred, the duo revived the scheme in 2012, this time with the United States reportedly ready to back the assault. They even conducted joint drills to prepare for a coordinated strike, but for reasons still unclear, the invasion was ultimately called off.
2 Project A119: The American Plan To Nuke The Moon
In 1959, the U.S. Army decided that conquering Earth wasn’t ambitious enough; they drafted a plan to detonate a nuclear device on the Moon.
The operation served a dual purpose: a scientific experiment (though many suspect it was more about showcasing American might) and a psychological weapon aimed at terrifying the Soviet Union. Scientists calculated the blast size needed to make the explosion visible from the ground, hoping the sight would cripple Soviet morale.
The mission was ultimately abandoned after advisors warned that nuking the Moon would be a public relations disaster. Nevertheless, the project got as far as hiring astrophysicist Carl Sagan to crunch the numbers. Had it proceeded, the Moon would have been blasted before any Apollo landing.
1 War Plan White: The American Plan To Fight Its Own People
During the first half of the twentieth century, the United States drafted plans to invade virtually every nation on the planet—including itself. This internal contingency was known as War Plan White, a strategy to suppress what officials termed a “left‑wing radical insurrection.”
At the time, labor unions were pushing for greater rights, and the government feared these movements might spiral into a communist uprising. War Plan White outlined how the Corps of Engineers would seize control of public utilities, the Navy would protect military assets, and the Army would march through civilian populations to restore order.
A secret police force was slated to be established in Pennsylvania, tasked with monitoring troublemakers and determining when lethal force could be justified. The plan even delved into the legalities of shooting American civilians under specific circumstances.
As decades passed, the strategy was revised for new threats. The most recent leaked version addressed a potential uprising by Black citizens demanding civil rights, showing how the United States continued to contemplate using military force against its own populace.