In April 1945 — before the surrender of Nazi Germany; before WW II had ended — Winston Churchill had an idea: 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 butts from the Nazis, using Nazi POW 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?
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.
OPERATION UNTHINKABLE was so secret the documents were not released to the public until 1998.
We asked Scott Ritter, former USMC and Chief UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq and post-Soviet #Russia if he’d ever heard of OPERATION UNTHINKABLE. His answer just might surprise you!
This Maverick News interview was conducted by journalists Rick Walker in Canada, and Lori Spencer in the United States.
Check out the full 3 hour interview in my Scott Ritter playlist!
Lori Spencer 