It sounds too crazy to be true, but it is.
Before the surrender of Nazi Germany; before WW II had ended, Winston Churchill had an idea one night while deep in his cups: why not team up with the Nazis and build an army to invade Britain’s ally, the Soviet Union?
Churchill instructed his Joint Planning Military Staff to draft an invasion plan. Imagine how this strategic meeting went:
“Yes, splendid. We shall invade the country who just saved our arses from the Nazis, using Nazi soldiers, and recruit the Americans to lend a hand! Better yet, let’s convince the Americans to drop that new super-duper bomb on the Russians! I mean, they have to try it out somewhere, let’s nuke a few Soviet cities!”
No one dared tell him this was a REALLY BAD IDEA. No one dared say, “but Winston, the Soviets are our ALLIES.”
Instead, they returned with an invasion plan called OPERATION UNTHINKABLE (Because it WAS “unthinkable” to stab one’s ally in the back), and it was approved by Prime Minister Winston Churchill on May 22, 1945 — just two weeks after V-E Day.
The stated object was “to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and British Empire. The goal was “the elimination of Russia” as a country.
Churchill’s military brass reported that despite the Red Army’s crushing defeat of the Nazi war machine, beating the Russians in battle would be easy-peasy for the British and Americans if they turned against their ally. “A quick success might induce the Russians to submit to our will at least for the time being; but it might not. That is for the Russians to decide. If they want total war, they are in a position to have it.”
Wait…what? TOTAL WAR? Didn’t we just finish a World War that devastated most of Europe and still haven’t finished that war in the Pacific yet?
No matter, Churchill thought. The only thing that could possibly matter now is Russia…Russia…Russia….WE MUST DESTROY RUSSIA, he mumbled drunkenly — the obsession with destroying Russia consumed him day and night. He planned to recruit the Americans to help him live out his fantasies — as soon as he sobered up.
Now that FDR was dead (President Franklin Roosevelt had died on April 12), there was no one to tell Churchill NO, we are NOT going to invade and nuke the Soviet Union. The new President Harry Truman and some of his top generals gave the plan serious consideration, although General Dwight Eisenhower thought it madness.
So, what happened to OPERATION UNTHINKABLE? Why was the plan scrapped? Watch and find out! You won’t believe how close we came to WW III starting immediately after WW II.
OPERATION UNTHINKABLE was so secret the documents were not released to the public until 1999. Read them here at the UK National Archives.
Lori Spencer 