Could/Would the USSR invade Alaska in WW3?

Anaxagoras

Banned
Well, there was a really good alt-history movie about this called Red Morning or something. It happened in that movie, so seems legit to me.

Yeah, in the movie the Soviets sent "three whole army groups" across the Bering Strait. Assuming the minimum of two armies per army group, that's six entire armies!

Sending paratroopers to conquer Colorado was the realistic part of the plot.
 
While I don't doubt any of the strategic/propaganda upsides of getting a front in Alaska, wouldn't the risk be through the roof? I can't imagine anyone would think that the USSR would start to occupy massive amounts of territory in AK, so you'd basically be committing your forces to eventually being pushed back. Also, it's not like they wouldn't already be expending an incredible amount of people in Europe while this Alaskan invasion would be going on, so they're going to keep resources in that theatre.
 
It may be a propaganda coup it all depends on whether or not that brigade lives long enough to report they landed before they're obliterated by a tac nuke and considering wartime censorship it doubt tat news it gonna get anywhere except in Soviet propaganda which no one gives a shit about. The US doesn't have to divert forces the Alaskan NG and the various USN assets will be more than enough to deal with any Soviet forces the USN simply has to move a carrier up there and then boom no more Soviet airborne troops the Joint Chiefs aren't stupid and they won't move additional units to defend from a non-existent threat. Also, you may or may not start a nuclear war by attacking and seizing US territory yeah that would be bad. As for the pipeline the US still has the strategic reserve and by the time the oil from Alaska is needed we have probably had a nuclear war.
 
I mean even if I assume this doesn't end in mutually assured destruction within a few weeks/months, invading the United States is probably the most difficult and impossibile task to pull off. It's more likely for the United States to invade through Siberia than for the Soviets to invade through Alaska. Strategic bombings and weakening of resources on the US seems like a better strategy for the Soviets than a traditional land invasion, which would be costly, deadly and of little gain in the long run.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Are we assuming a conventional Third World War? If we are, then it makes sense for the Soviets to try to divert American conventional forces away from Europe and the Far East. If we're not, the whole question is rather moot.
 
A unit is better used in Europe or Norway not wasted for no gain in the Alaskan wastes. I don't think the Soviets are thick headed enough to lose a brigade or battalion for no gain whatsoever

I get that in theory a unit can be better used in lots of places more effectively than Alaska, but once WWIII is going it doesn't really matter since both sides are going to annihilate each other, and probably everyone else too probably.
 
They would gain tremendously. Firstly, the occupation of American territory would be a propaganda coup of no small measure. Secondly, by tossing away one expendable brigade, they would cause the United States to divert forces of considerably larger strength to defend Alaska from the perceived Soviet threat. Thirdly, if they could damage the Alaska Pipeline, it would inflict a significant blow against the United States war effort. Fourthly, any damage to the American air fields would be a blow to the Allied war effort in the Far East.
I suspect that such an attack would have diverted at least some U.S. and probably Canadian forces from other theaters. I'm doubtful that the Soviets would have perceived the exchange as worth while.
 
As a corollary to this did the US ever plan on invading Kamatchatka and the Russian pacific coast in WW3?

John Lehman, the Secretary of the Navy under Reagan from 1981 to 1987, came up with a plan called the "Lehman Doctrine" that called for invading the Soviet Far East in response to a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. American forces would land on the Soviet Pacific coast and advance into Siberia, severing the Trans-Siberian Railway.
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
John Lehman, the Secretary of the Navy under Reagan from 1981 to 1987, came up with a plan called the "Lehman Doctrine" that called for invading the Soviet Far East in response to a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. American forces would land on the Soviet Pacific coast and advance into Siberia, severing the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Such was the plan. Finding the troops for it which weren't needed in Korea would have been an interesting exercise in futility.
 
Top