Invasion USA

[New Yorker]

Any good books or web sites dealing with invasions of the US itself? Either as alternate history or war game scenarios of US military planning for such an event? I read Jackboot about a Nazi invasion during WW2. Not that great.

Thanks.

 

[Dave Howery]

1901 by Robert Conroy
Invasion by Eric L. Harry
Not This August by... Kornbluth? SOmething like that...

 

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Hooray! Someone's interested in one of my favorite genres!

Here's a brief list of a few titles I enjoyed:

1901 by Robert Conroy: Essentially, the author took a plan the German High Command created as a practice exercise, and turned it into an AH novel. In this one, the Kaiser, envious of America's new former Spanish colonies, declares war on US and invades New York, and tears up a few other NE states. The Germans are eventually driven out.

Not This August by Cyril Kornblunth: My personal favorite. WW3 broke out in the late 1950's, and the USSR and PRC have conquered Europe, destroyed the American fleet, and are invading Texas via Mexico by 1965. The president surrenders in the beginning of the book after the front line at El Paso collapses. The book itself is a description of the Soviet occupation of a small town in Southern New York. Good characters, few cliches, tight plot. It was last published in the 1950's, so you'll have to get it through Alibris.

Vandenberg (aka Defiance) by Oliver Lange: Sometime in the early 1970's, the Soviets use some type of bio-weapon to destroy the population of Washington D.C. Using the media to keep the country off-balance, the Red Army sweeps in and occupies the United States, which is suffering heavy from post-Vietnam demoralization. The book is the story of an artist-hermit who leads an attack on a Soviet reeducation facility in New Mexico. The novel is mostly an attack on 1970's American society.

I, Martha Adams by Pauline Glen Winslow: The USSR destroys America's offensive capability in a nuclear first-strike in 1983. The president, who makes Carter look like Genghis Khan, surrenders, and the Soviets roll in. The story follows one woman, Martha Adams, looking for a fabled nuclear wunderwaffen to force the Soviets to leave. The book Not this August would've have been if it had been a bad book.

The Red Napoleon by Floyd Gibbons: Stalin is assassinated in 1932, and a Red Army general named Ivan Karakhan, a man with a massive racial inferiority complex, takes over the USSR. He invades and conquers Europe in 1933. In 1934-1935, he goes after America. Typical late 1920's pulp, and the racial aspect is VERY heavy-handed. Another book you can get at Alibris.

The Conquered Place by Robert Shafer: The Soviets conquer Europe and the western US in the late 1950's. The book is about a resistance movement in occupied St. Louis. I need to get this one read soon.

The Man in the High Castle and Turtledove's Curious Notions also deal with occupied Americas, in case you're interested.

 

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Oh, and as for other media, there's the movies Red Dawn, Invasion USA (one from the 1950's without Chuck Norris, and one from the 1980's with) or the computer games Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Freedom Fighters.

 

[MrP]

The US army had a contingency plan for war with the British Empire in the interwar period. War Plan Red maybe? It's broad details are outlined in an old issue of Wargames Illustrated . . . which I fear I haven't got with me atm.

 

[Diamond]

Don't forget about the so-terribly-awful-they're-good 'Doomsday Warrior' series that Zebra put out back in the mid-80s. They took place in a Soviet-occupied, nuclear-ravaged America. Complete with T&A, Snidely Whiplash Russian officers, mutants, and enough far right rhetoric to make Leo Caesius cry like a ten year old girl.

 

[RealityBYTES]

I found Eric L. Harry's "Invasion" to be a pretty chilling account of a Chinese invasion and occupation of parts of America sometime in the 21st century (2020s, perhaps?). I mainly liked it because of the characters and because, IMO, there's no storybook ending.

I really wish Harry would write a sequel (or two, or three) to this superb novel.

RealityBYTES

 

[Kit]

Warday is good. It was written in 1983 about a Soviet nuclear attack in 1988. The book itself is set in 1993, in a US that is environmentally, structurally and economically ravaged and is quickly disintegrating into rival political factions.

Theres another book...forgotten it's name, but I have it somewhere at home, I think it might have been called Famine.

It's set in 1981. The Soviets launch a secret plan to destroy all American food stocks and crops. Radioactive material is seeded in grain silos, botulism introduced to canned goods and other stocks, bio-warfare is used on livestock and most pesticides are contaminated with chemicals that destroy the crops they are sprayed on. Everything is co-ordinated over the period of a year or so to culminate at the same time.

Within two months America is in famine, but they're unable to prove who did it to them and the Soviets are loudly declaring their sympathy and outrage and offering support. The President suspects that they are responsible, but hesitates before ordering a first-strike without definative proof. Unfortunately he waits too long; with most Americans starving to death, the nuclear missile bases cannot be operated indefinately and eventually they begin going offline. At the end of the book the Soviets invade under a UN mandate to 'offer emergency assistance'.

 

[ejvandekaa]

Fortress amerika

Then ofcourse there is the MB game fortress america

from the boardgamegeeks site:

"Fortress America depicts an alternate near future in which all of the world attacks and invades the continental United States. From the west arrives hordes of Asian foes; from the south arrives a union of South American countries through Mexico, and from the east lands legions of Soviets who have taken over all of Europe. America besieged has to rely on the remaining ground and air forces left in the country along with partisan uprisings to defend mom's apple pie.

Up to four players can play Fortress America, one player is the US and up to three others control the invading units from a particular direction. Being a near future scenario, the units in the game include conventional infantry, APCs, hovertanks, helicopters, bombers, US partisan units, and special "Star Wars" laser relays systems that fire from space.

The game emphasizes combined arms, in that players get a bonus if infantry, mechanized and air power is all used in a conflict. For the invading countries all the units they receive for the game are given at the start so they must manage them wisely. The US however starts with a skeleton defense and builds up throughout the game through a random deck of cards. Further, the US slowly builds up its Star Wars system, and so the longer the invaders are delayed the more powerful the US becomes both conventionally and through their defense system.

This game is part of the Gamemaster series of games that came out by Milton Bradley in the 1980's. The complete series includes Broadsides and Boarding Parties, Conquest of the Empire, Axis and Allies, Fortress America, Shogun, and then a re-released Shogun under the title Samurai Swords. The whole series is famous for their high production value and their low complexity, thus they offered a great series of beginner level wargames that were both eye catching with their plastic pieces and the ability to play an entire game in one evening. Unfortunately all of them, save for Axis and Allies is out of print and tends to demand a hefty price on the online auctions and net marketplaces.

Now that Hasbro has bought out Avalon Hill, Axis and Allies and the two spin-off titles A&A: Europe and A&A: Pacific will be put out under the new Avalon Hill name."


Evertjan van de Kaa

 

[George Carty]

Red Dawn

Was the plot for Red Dawn based on a Soviet propaganda film? (In the Soviet film, the bad guys were, of course, Nazis).

 

[edvader]

Not this August was reprinted in the 1980s.Rewritten by Fred Pohl-Kornbluth's friend.Revised in that the cobalt bombs were changed to something else.Minor revisions elsewhere.Out of print!

 

[Midgard]

Panzer General was a game in which, depending on whether you decide to play the Axis campaign, you could end up invading the US in 1945 - that is, if you start at the early Axis campaign and achieve major victories pretty much in every battle you face. Then again, you also get two shots at the Operation Sealion (one in 1940, if the previous scenario is won much quicker than normal, and one in 1943, if you crush the USSR and don't get to invade England successfully in 1940)... so the plausibility is somewhat questionable. The cool thing about the invasion of the USA scenario is that you have to win within so many turns, otherwise the US deploys a "superweapon" (read - nuclear bomb) which means you automatically lose the battle...

 

[New Yorker]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Slightly off topic of alternate history, does anyone know of any books or websites that discussed stragey and defense preparations taken by the US military in case of invasion or even current existing defense plans? Also interested in British defense planning.

Many thanks.

 

[Farnham]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Slightly off topic of alternate history, does anyone know of any books or websites that discussed stragey and defense preparations taken by the US military in case of invasion or even current existing defense plans? Also interested in British defense planning.

Many thanks.

Good question. The Pentagon is always drawing up plans for action in Europe, the Mideast, Korea etc. When was the last time the DoD had to draw up plans for a ground defense of the 50 US states?

 

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Slightly off topic of alternate history, does anyone know of any books or websites that discussed stragey and defense preparations taken by the US military in case of invasion or even current existing defense plans? Also interested in British defense planning.

Many thanks.

You might get lucky if you find a copy of Dropshot, edited by Anthony Cave Brown. The book itself is a compilation of a hypothetical scenario created in the late 1940's, describing a Soviet attack into Western Europe, Turkey, and Japan in 1957 (a year chosen at random), and how the United States could best win such a war. There are some pages here and there about how the United States could be defended against air attacks, terror bombings, and so on. It didn't have anything about repelling a Soviet offensive on American soil though; I guess even the overly-pessimistic defense planners that created Dropshot thought that was a bit much.

 

[New Yorker]

Unthinkable?

I guess an invasion of the mainland US is pretty unrealistic in OTL. Maybe there were fears of a British invasion before WW1 or a Mexican invasion at some point. Perhaps a small scale invasion where the goal is to cause panic or attack specific targets rather than to acquire land is not so unrealistic.

Nonetheless, I would think the Pentagon would have plans to deal with all sorts of things. If someone runs across any information like that, please share.

 

[Melvin Loh]

ENDWORLD series by Dave Robbins

There's also the BLADE FH series, set in a post-apocalypse futuristic former US, where IIRC some of the eastern seaboard is controlled by Soviet forces who successfully invaded, with former US territory being carved up between the Freedom Federation of 5 separate entities-

THE FAMILY---compound called the HOME, located at Lake Bronson State Park in northern Minnesota

THE CIVILIZED ZONE---embraces former states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Oklahoma, half of Texas, and parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

THE CAVALRY---superb horsemen who control North and South Dakota.

FLATHEAD TERRITORY---the Flathead Indians occupy all of Montana.

FREE STATE OF CALIFORNIA---a shining beacon of hope in the new world.

THE CLAN---they inhabit the town of Halma in northwestern Minnesota.

THE MOLES---live in a subterranean city in northern Minnesota.

THE FREEDOM FEDERATION---the collective entity by which all of the above factions are known.

THE FREEDOM FORCE---made up of a special member from each faction, their mission is to combat any and all threats to the security of the Federation.

THE WARRIORS---the elite defenders of the Home.

all of whom face off against other areas controlled variously by radiation-induced mutants, criminal gangs, and wacko religious cults such as
THE TROLLS---vicious inhabitants of Fox, Minnesota. Their motto: "Trolls want WOMEN!"

WACKS, PORNS & NOMADS---three gangs who have over run the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

LEATHER KNIGHTS---bikers who control St. Louis, Missouri. If you're not one of them, you're history.

THE ZOMBIES---New York is theirs; lets visitors beware.

THE VIKINGS---fierce marauders of the High Seas.

FREEBS---freeborn Pennsylvanians who resist the yoke of tyranny.

PACKRATS---Young freedom fighters based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

SUPERIORS---androids who control Houston, Texas.

THE GILD---A brotherhood of assassins.

THE BRETHREN---mutant rulers of Seattle. Their motto: "Humans were born to be enslaved."

THE MASTERS---inhuman controllers of Miama.

THE PEERS---they believe in the rule of law above all else---their law. Atlanta, a city ruled by lawyers. Oh, the horror!

THE HOUNDS---their turf is Memphis. Their base of operations is a mansion that once belonged to a famous singer called 'the King'.

THE CHOSEN---the special ones, they hide a vile secret in Dallas.

THE TECHNICS---technocrats have turned Chicago into a fascist nightmare.

THE BREED---radiation spawned Neanderthals who have staked out Yellowstone National Park as their personal slayground.

BLACK SNAKE SOCIETY---voodoo potentates of New Orleans.

SPARTANS---as tough as their namesakes, they thrive on war.

MUTANTS---some are genetically engineered, others are the byproducts of radiation, all are deadly.

MUTATES---pus covered monstrosities, the result of chemical warfare on a global scale.

THE CLOUDS---some say they are alive, acidic fogs that devour flesh and bone.

.

 

[Bulldawg85]

Lightning in the Night

Not bad, but very dated. Originally published in 1940. It had the Germans, the USSR, and the Japanese all invade the U.S. The only way that the U.S. stopped them was by sending bombers with abombs over their nations. Unless they pulled out we would drop the bombs. First wartime use of abombs that I can think of in a novel.

 

[Chris Oakley]

Vandenberg (aka Defiance) by Oliver Lange: Sometime in the early 1970's, the Soviets use some type of bio-weapon to destroy the population of Washington D.C. Using the media to keep the country off-balance, the Red Army sweeps in and occupies the United States, which is suffering heavy from post-Vietnam demoralization. The book is the story of an artist-hermit who leads an attack on a Soviet reeducation facility in New Mexico. The novel is mostly an attack on 1970's American society.

Read it.Hated it.

 

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Read it.Hated it.

Yeah, by the end of the book I was frothing at the mouth over the way that lazy hick murdered those kindly Soviet guards who'd never hurt a fly...

Awright, I'm laying it on with a trowel, but I didn't have much sympathy for Vandenberg.