History Main / InvadedStatesOfAmerica

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/RedAlert2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ra2_welcometomoscow.png]]]]

[[folder:Table-Top Games]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' series: The ''Armored Fury'' booster pack for ''Battlefield 2'' depicted maps set in Alaska and Pennsylvania as US forces defended their homeland against Chinese and Middle Eastern Collation Forces. ''Bad Company 2'' has several multiplayer maps set in Alaska, and [[spoiler: the ending depicts Russian forces advancing on the northern border of the US.]] Averted in ''Battlefield 3'', as the levels that take place in New York are about stopping a terrorist attack, not an invasion.

** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'': The second game in the series has several levels set in Northern Virginia and D.C. The invaders are not the ''actual'' Soviet Union, since the game takes place long after the end of the Cold War, but the Ultranationalist party which has taken over Russia in the game's timeline is a pretty effective substitute. The third game has them fighting in New York City as well, before finally being pushed off US soil after their defeat there. Appropriately, the first mission set in the invaded U.S. is called [[Film/RedDawn1984 Wolverines!]], and the achievement for beating it on Veteran is Red Dawn.

%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!

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[[quoteright:304:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CanadaInvades_8752.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:304:[[Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld America's Hat]] no more.\\
[[http://www.deviantart.com/art/Canada-Invades-40094493 Image]] by [[http://groggie.deviantart.com/Groggie Groggie]]]]

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_America_(board_wargame) Invasion America]]'' (1976) board wargame by [=SPI=] (Simulations Publications Inc.). The U.S. is invaded by three international coalitions: the European Socialist Coalition, the South American Union and the Pan Asiatic League. The popularity of this game spawned a companion piece the next year, ''Objective: Moscow'', detailing invasions of the Soviet Union by various coalitions of the Western Allies and China from the 1970's to the end of the 20th Century.

* C.M. Kornbluth's novel ''Literature/NotThisAugust'' begins with the surrender of the U.S. to Soviet and Chinese forces. The novel itself is about the resistance movement.

** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'': The second game in the series has several levels set in Northern Virgina and D.C. The invaders are not the ''actual'' Soviet Union, since the game takes place long after the end of the Cold War, but the Ultranationalist party which has taken over Russia in the game's timeline is a pretty effective substitute. The third game has them fighting in New York City as well, before finally being pushed off US soil after their defeat there. Appropriately, the first mission set in the invaded U.S. is called [[Film/RedDawn1984 Wolverines!]], and the achievement for beating it on Veteran is Red Dawn.

See also MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack and RussiaCalledTheyWantAlaskaBack for more specific examples of this trope. Contrast with WarComesHome, which may be more generic and do not focus on actual real locations. DividedStatesOfAmerica sometimes goes hand-in-hand, as other nations come into the country to act as peacekeepers, to secure international interests, or to conquer the splintered US. Goes hand-in-hand with OccupiersOutOfOurCountry, FallenStatesOfAmerica and DayOfTheJackboot. May or may not involve a WashingtonDCInvasion. If the bad guys have invaded all the rest of world and left America for last, only to be defeated there, then AmericaSavesTheDay.

* The pulp 1980's series ''Doomsday Warrior'' is set AfterTheEnd in a Soviet-occupied America with LaResistance operating out of [[UndergroundCity hidden conclaves]]. Somehow the Americans have got the best of the deal; [[ILoveNuclearPower mutation]] has developed these Freefighters into {{Super Soldier}}s who use secretly-developed {{Ray Gun}}s to curb-stomp the DirtyCommunists. Realism needless to say is [[RuleOfCool not a priority in these books.]]

* The incidents depicted below are all basically just raids. There has never been a serious attempt to invade and conquer the United States since UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. It's too big, too populated, and too isolated from other powers to make such a conquest feasible. And even that one attempt was unsuccessful.

* The incidents depicted below are all basically just raids. There has never been a serious attempt to invade and conquer the United States since UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. Its too big, too populated, and too isolated from other powers to make such a conquest feasible. And even that one attempt was unsuccessful.

!!! Recorded invasions
To date, there have been four attempted invasions of the United States. None of them were particularly successful, and very few of them were serious attempts at actually taking over U.S. territory. Turns out the U.S. is a ''big'' place, and you'd probably run out of time and resources before you take over the entire damn place.

!!! Projected invasions:
In a number of cases, a foreign power toyed with the idea of invading the U.S., but never went through with it because they realized it was pretty much impossible, or they lost before they could find out the hard way.

* In 1917, the German Foreign Office unilaterally offered Venustiano Carranza (yes, that guy again) aid to invade the U.S. with the promise that Mexico would [[MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack take back the land that was taken in 1848]] after the Mexican-American War. Carranza refused mostly because he was dealing with UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution, and Pancho Villa or Emiliano Zapata would likely use the opportunity of an invasion of the U.S. to overthrow him. He also knew he was very likely to lose; the U.S. badly outgunned Mexico as it stood, and it would be even worse if they got to warm up their war machine -- so bad, in fact, that there would be no way Germany (or any European power) could actually get their aid to Mexico and make good on their promise. In other words, the only entity with the resources to help Mexico invade the United States was... the United States. In any event, the German Foreign Office did this without the approval of the Reichstag or the OHL (both of whom thought it was a colossally stupid idea) and sent their instructions to the German embassy in Mexico through the trans-Atlantic telegraph line -- which was owned, and [[ReadingTheEnemysMail all of its traffic monitored]], by the British. And it backfired horribly on the Germans, as the "Zimmermann telegram" (as it became known) was leaked to the Americans, who were so pissed off that it was a big reason they joined UsefulNotes/WorldWarI to fight ''against'' the Germans -- which was [[LetsYouAndHimFight exactly what the "invasion" was designed to avoid]].
* UsefulNotes/NaziGermany probably planned to invade the U.S. in the medium-to-long-term. They were more focused on conquering Europe and particularly the Soviet Union. They figured they needed Soviet land and resources (and had to replace the local population with ethnic Germans) before they could even gain the requisite superiority over the U.S., which wouldn't have happened even by their optimistic timeline until around the 1970s. But they were almost certainly thinking about it, given what we know about their ideology and rhetoric, including what we know about their private beliefs -- Hitler wanted to TakeOverTheWorld, and "the world" includes the United States. One can also note the inordinate attention given to acquiring military bases in West Africa and Central and South America even before the invasion of the Soviet Union. However, the sparse details we have suggest little planning was done for such an invasion, it envisioned more of a naval-air campaign that would have blockaded the U.S. and forced them to capitulate, and it likely would have involved establishing a puppet regime in the U.S. rather than direct administration from Germany.
** On a slightly downplayed note, one aspect that Hitler ''was'' interested in as early as 1937 was having the ability to ''bomb'' America from Europe, which gave birth to the "''Amerikabomber''" project, essentially a contract to submit designs for intercontinental bombers, with which Nazi Germany could conduct large-scale raids on the American mainland from Europe, most specifically New York, which Hitler apparently held a fascination of imagining the city in flames. Goering himself also expressed a desire for such bombers, so that he could "at last stuff the mouth of arrogance across the sea." The trope gets played more straight in the sense that several of the bomber designs submitted were also designed to carry cargo and paratroopers, ostensibly to carry out ''Fallshirmjager'' raids on the Americans as well, but long-term occupation was still off the table. Eventually, however, as the war wore on and fortunes turned against Germany, the "''Amerikabomber''" project, along with most of Germany's other fantastic pipe dreams, was permanently shelved.
* [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn The Soviet Union]] mostly discounted any significant invasion of the U.S. during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, but they did have plans for less ambitious operations like airstrikes, missile strikes (conventional or nuclear), special forces raids, and naval attacks. Most American analysts believed if they did come, they'd go through Alaska across the Bering Sea (a [[http://techconex.com/tcblog/2008/04/05/mapping-world-war-iii-soviet-global-invasion-routes/ 1987 Department of Defense plan]] suggested they might do this to draw U.S. forces away from Japan and the rest of Asia, allowing the Soviets to invade there instead). The closest the Soviets came was a scheme of UsefulNotes/JosephStalin's that he concocted in 1948 during the First Berlin Crisis, where if it came to war with the U.S. they would invade Alaska -- and he established a special military formation, the 14th Assault Army, to carry out the plan should the order be given. The plan was trashed and the army disbanded after Stalin's death in 1953. Overall, the Soviets' focus for invasion was on that of Western Europe for the immediate future, as it was a much more attainable objective, and both the Soviets and the Americans knew that losing all of mainland Europe would be a more severe blow to America's global influence than an attempted invasion of the mainland would.
* In some cases, a plan is discovered for invasion of the United States as part of a country's secret plan to invade ''every'' country in the world, [[CrazyPrepared just in case they absolutely have to]]. For instance, the German General Staff's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_German_plans_for_the_invasion_of_the_United_States#See_also hypothetical plan for an invasion of the U.S. eastern seaboard]] inspired the novel ''1901'' (listed under "Literature"). Even Canada had a plan for an invasion of the U.S., a 1921 strategy called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_Scheme_No._1 Defense Scheme No. 1]]. And that plan involved a surprise attack at strategic points along the border, then leaving, destroying bridges and roads behind them, and waiting for British reinforcements (which, according to the ''British'' secret plans, were never going to come because the British believed that Canada would be impossible to defend in a hypothetical war with the U.S. and [[SacrificialLamb would have to be let go]]). And yes, the Americans were [[ProperlyParanoid particularly paranoid]] and had their own academic plan to invade Canada called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red War Plan Red]].

!!! Current situation:
So you want to invade the United States to establish your glorious new empire. Well, you'll have to accept that it's probably not going to happen, for a number of reasons:
* First, reaching the mainland United States ''alone'' would be a brutal chore for any army. America has the benefit of being isolated from many of its rivals because of the vastness of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The logistics of supplying and funding an army across two major oceans would be excruciating, even for the other major powers like China and Russia. Even if you could assemble such a massive supply chain, you would still have to get past the massive U.S. Navy, which could wage a war of attrition against the resources you brought to bear.
-->'''Otto Von Bismarck''': The Americans are a very lucky people. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish
* Second, the U.S. ''itself'' is really freaking big. Your army will be stretched pretty thin, especially when you consider that it's got a ''lot'' of coastline from which it can mount a naval defense. And it's got a wide variety of pretty unforgiving natural interior lines as well, from impassable mountain ranges to vast empty plains. The weather can range from unbearably hot in the southwest to bitterly cold in the north. It's ''slightly'' more forgiving than invading Russia -- ''slightly''. And we all know what happened to the people who tried that. Nobody's got the resources to take over a country that big and hold it for any appreciable length of time.
* Third, the U.S. has an incredible war capability. It's got the world's second largest military, with 1.5 million active personnel, and the world's biggest air force and navy (pretty important when most potential invaders are overseas). It also spends more money on its military than most of the rest of the planet ''combined''[[note]]and that's after budget cuts -- less than a decade ago it spent more on its military than ''all'' other nations combined[[/note]]. And the last time anyone attacked U.S. territory, in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the Americans shifted their entire economy to the war effort and made a machine that could fight in two fronts at once. UsefulNotes/{{Imperial Japan}}ese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto predicted that the Japanese, after launching a sneak attack, would have the upper hand for only six months before the American war machine got so big as to turn the tide, and wouldn't you know it -- Pearl Harbor, December 1941, Battle of Midway, June 1942.
* Fourth, the U.S. has a ''lot'' of friends. Well, it might be a bit of an [[MutuallyUnequalRelation uneven friendship]] in some cases, but it's there. The obvious sign of it is NATO, which gives it a whole host of "friends" with whom it can share resources. It's also got a habit of installing military bases in foreign countries all over the world -- Japan, Korea, India, Germany, the UAE -- which would allow it to stop your invasion before you even get to U.S. territory. And the U.S. is also an economic powerhouse and a very big market, meaning they'll buy your exports if you do a good enough job and give you money you can rely on if you're a smaller, poorer country. So, if you're a country big enough to even try to mount an invasion of the U.S. -- China, Russia -- you'd piss off so many people that you're hardly going to have any friends to help you out.
* Fifth, as awkward as it is to mention given the nature of UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics, the civilians are armed to the teeth (plus, extra partisans to give occupiers a massive headache). The [[UsefulNotes/AmericanLawEnforcement civilian police force]] counts over 800,000 law enforcement personnel at the federal, state, and local level -- that alone would be the sixth largest army in the world. Many of them are even given paramilitary training -- controversial when their job is to be police, very handy when you're facing an invasion. Those guys also have much better local knowledge of their own jurisdictions than any foreign invader. Add to that all the armed ''non''-police people -- while some of them are {{Gun Nut}}s who fantasize about just this scenario so they could play the hero, they'll be able to convince quite a few people to join them if an invasion ''actually'' happens. And there are more than 400 million firearms owned by American civilians -- that's more guns than ''people''. Even if you get boots on the ground in U.S. territory, you're going to have to fight for every inch of space in a vast country. As Admiral Yamamoto famously said:
--->''You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.''
:: Wait, [[https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/12/johannes-paulsen/thought-americans-december-7th/ it's unclear]] whether he [[BeamMeUpScotty actually said that]]. But he makes a good point. How about something he's confirmed to have said?
--->''Should hostilities once break out between Japan and the United States, it is not enough that we take Guam and the Philippines, nor even Hawaii and San Francisco. We would have to march into Washington and sign the treaty in the White House. I wonder if our politicians (who speak so lightly of a Japanese-American war) have confidence as to the outcome and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices?''
:: Wait again, this one was historically {{Quote Mine}}d by isolating the first sentence or two to make it look like he's advocating for an invasion. Well, maybe we can hear someone else give his opinion? How about UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, describing the situation right before the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar?
--->''From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia, with a Napoleon at their head, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.''
:: Damn.
* And finally, if you are a First World country who happened to take ''all'' of the points above into account ''and'' prepare for them, you wouldn't ''want'' to invade the United States. Why? Two words: ''Global Economy''. The United States economy, for better or worse, has become intrinsically tied to the economies of practically ''every other'' nation in the world, and there is a ''damn'' good reason that the United States Dollar is a powerhouse in the currency world. Toppling said economy will create a [[DisasterDominoes domino effect]] ''very'' quickly, as other First World economies follow suit, resulting in worldwide goods shortages, price inflation, and financial collapse that would make the Great Depression from the 1930's look downright ''trivial'' compared to what would happen nowadays. Heck, you wouldn't even ''need'' to go to get to the "invaded" part, since just giving the United States ''any'' excuse to pull up stops and devote their entire economy to funding a war (against you) would likely send shockwaves that will come straight back to any nation that attempts hostilities against them.
* If you can't mount a physical invasion of the United States, you could try to destroy America with nuclear weapons...but this will lead to America responding in kind. Even if you wipe out America, your own nation will likely be destroyed as well.
%%
Well, there you have it. That's why everybody thinks they'll never successfully invade the U.S.

The background of the invasion usually varies on when the work is set. If it is set pre-1990, it is usually a Cold War that got hot or some other form of AlternateHistory, such as Nazi Germany and/or UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan carving an isolationist America up once they've finished conquering the rest of the world. TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture will sometimes depict a (dystopian) USA that is no longer a Super-Power but merely a Great (e.g. as it was in 1900) or Second-Rate (e.g. as in 1850) or Third-rate (e.g. 1812) Power that would genuinely be threatened by an invasion from a rival power. NextSundayAD settings will usually be very similar to the Twenty Minutes setting, usually featuring a [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain Russian]] or [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld Chinese invasion]]. The US's nuclear arsenal almost never gets employed during these stories, despite [[CriticalResearchFailure the fact it'd be a deterrent as per the whole 'MAD' thing]], though its non-use is often hand-waved away by the proliferation of some [[Main/AppliedPhlebotinum new technology]] and/or [[AWizardDidIt magic]] -- or by the governments simply going "better to try reclaiming what's ours than doom the whole world". Some works give a handwave towards Mexico becoming unfriendly in the years leading up to the war, so that it can be plausibly used as a base for an invasion (the most common example is a Communist Mexico allied with the Soviet Union).

* Fourth, the U.S. has a ''lot'' of friends. Well, it might be a bit of an [[MutuallyUnequalRelation uneven friendship]] in some cases, but it's there. The obvious sign of it is NATO, which gives it a whole host of "friends" with whom it can share resources. It's also got a habit of installing military bases in foreign countries all over the world -- Japan, Korea, Germany, the UAE -- which would allow it to stop your invasion before you even get to U.S. territory. And the U.S. is also an economic powerhouse and a very big market, meaning they'll buy your exports if you do a good enough job and give you money you can rely on if you're a smaller, poorer country. So, if you're a country big enough to even try to mount an invasion of the U.S. -- China, Russia, India -- you'd piss off so many people that you're hardly going to have any friends to help you out.

'''Note that the trope only counts for ''human'' invasions on US soil, not [[AlienInvasion alien invasions]].''' (And not ''[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant that]]'' kind of "[[IllegalAlien alien]] invasion" either.)

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' is more global, but both the Imperial and Soviet campaigns feature invasions of the United States at some point (the Japanese invade LA so the Emperor can broadcast propaganda to remove the U.S. from the war, the Soviets destroy the Statue of Liberty). [[spoiler: Going after President Ackerman at Mt. Rushmore in the Allied campaign after he goes rogue may or may not count.]]

* Fifth, as awkward as it is to mention given the nature of UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics, the civilians are armed to the teeth. The [[UsefulNotes/AmericanLawEnforcement civilian police force]] counts over 800,000 law enforcement personnel at the federal, state, and local level -- that alone would be the sixth largest army in the world. Many of them are even given paramilitary training -- controversial when their job is to be police, very handy when you're facing an invasion. Those guys also have much better local knowledge of their own jurisdictions than any foreign invader. Add to that all the armed ''non''-police people -- while some of them are {{Gun Nut}}s who fantasize about just this scenario so they could play the hero, they'll be able to convince quite a few people to join them if an invasion ''actually'' happens. And there are more than 400 million firearms owned by American civilians -- that's more guns than ''people''. Even if you get boots on the ground in U.S. territory, you're going to have to fight for every inch of space in a vast country. As Admiral Yamamoto famously said:

The background of the invasion usually varies on when the work is set. If it is set pre-1990, it is usually a Cold War that got hot or some other form of AlternateHistory, such as Nazi Germany and/or UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan carving an isolationist America up once they've finished conquering the rest of the world. TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture will sometimes depict a (dystopian) USA that is no longer a Super-Power but merely a Great (e.g. as it was in 1900) or Second-Rate (e.g. as in 1850) or Third-rate (e.g. 1812) Power that would genuinely be threatened by an invasion from a rival power. NextSundayAD settings will usually be very similar to the Twenty Minutes setting, usually featuring a [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain Russian]] or [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld Chinese invasion]]. The US's nuclear arsenal almost never gets employed during these stories, despite [[CriticalResearchFailure the fact it'd be a deterrent as per the whole 'MAD' thing]], though its non-use is often hand-waved away by the proliferation of some [[Main/AppliedPhlebotinum new technology]] and/or [[AWizardDidIt magic]] - or by the governments simply going "better to try reclaiming what's ours than doom the whole world". Some works give a handwave towards Mexico becoming unfriendly in the years leading up to the war, so that it can be plausibly used as a base for an invasion (the most common example is a Communist Mexico allied with the Soviet Union).

* The ''WebVideo/Local58'' episode "Contingency" depicts the titular station accidentally airing a UsefulNotes/ColdWar-era newsreel that was prepared in case this fate befell the country, warning that the US has just fallen to an invading power (implied to be the Soviet Union) and urging that the nation's citizens commit mass suicide, deeming it preferable to living under occupation.

-->-- '''Music/TalkingHeads''', "Life During Wartime"

** On a slightly downplayed note, one aspect that Hitler ''was'' interested in as early as 1937 was having the ability to ''bomb'' America from Europe, which gave birth to the "''Amerikabomber''" project, essentially a contract to submit designs for intercontinental bombers, with which Nazi Germany could conduct large-scale raids on the American mainland from Europe, most specifically New York, which Hitler apparently held a fascination of imagining the city in flames, and Goering himself expressed a desire for such bombers, so that he could "at last stuff the mouth of arrogance across the sea." The trope gets played more straight in the sense that several of the bomber designs submitted were also designed to carry cargo and paratroopers, ostensibly to carry out ''Fallshirmjager'' raids on the Americans as well, but long-term occupation was still off the table. Eventually, however, as the war wore on and fortunes turned against Germany, the "''Amerikabomber''" project, along with most of Germany's other fantastic pipe dreams, was permanently shelved.

See also MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack and RussiaCalledTheyWantAlaskaBack for more specific examples of this trope. Contrast with WarComesHome, which may be more generic and do not focus on actual real locations. DividedStatesOfAmerica sometimes goes hand-in-hand, as other nations come into the country to act as peacekeepers, to secure international interests, or to conquer the splintered US. Goes hand-in-hand with OccupiersOutOfOurCountry, FallenStatesOfAmerica and DayOfTheJackboot. May or may not involve a WashingtonDCInvasion.

See also MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack and RussiaCalledTheyWantAlaskaBack for more specific examples of this trope. DividedStatesOfAmerica sometimes goes hand-in-hand, as other nations come into the country to act as peacekeepers, to secure international interests, or to conquer the splintered US. Goes hand-in-hand with OccupiersOutOfOurCountry, FallenStatesOfAmerica and DayOfTheJackboot. May or may not involve a WashingtonDCInvasion.

* ''VideoGame/WorldInConflict'': Set during an alternate 1980s, in which the USSR launched an invasion of the US instead of collapsing as in Real Life. The main battles of the war are occurring in Western Europe and the invasion force that lands in Seattle is just there to keep the USA from reinforcing its NATO allies. The backstory also explains that the Soviets previously attempted to invade New York, but the assault was repulsed. No one expected an attack from the other direction.

* ''Free Flight'' by Douglas Terman takes place in a post-[=WW3=] Soviet-occupied North America. Instead of the usual gung-ho OccupiersOutOfOurCountry story, the plot involves the protagonist trying to escape to a remote region of Canada via a motorised glider, while pursued by LaQuisling.