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Map published in the American newspaper Saturday Evening Post on September 20, 1952. The map illustrates an article by General Alexey Markoff, “a former confidant of Stalin’s marshals.” Shown on the map are Stalin’s “prime objectives,” according to Markoff: “Iran’s vast oil reserves and its warm-water ports, and Western Germany’s Ruhr arsenal.”
“Here were the home bases for a whole corps of long-range bombers, poised to strike across the water at the heart of Japan. All bomber crews were alerted to be ready for take-off on a mere two-and-a-half-hour notice. Top-priority tasks were bombing Northern Japan ports and cutting sea lanes between Korea and Japan. Even larger forces of fighter planes were on the super-speed half-hour to hour alerts. Altogether, the old Soviet Far Eastern front had no less than 3000 combat planes. Today there are even more – poised like a sword of Damocles over war-torn Korea and unarmed Japan.
On land, Bliicher had forty divisions – about 600,000 men of arms – more than all the American forces now fighting in Korea. Soviet tank, motorized and cavalry units were ready to attack four or five hours’ notice. So much gasoline, oil, and ammunition were stored in huge underground depots that the whole Far Eastern front could fight hard for two full months without outside aid. Even if a smart enemy cut the Trans-Siberian rail supply line, Blucher’s forces could fight on. Today there are just as many Soviet divisions in the Far East. They are equipped with heavy tanks, giant guns, V-2 rockets and big bombers the North Koreans and Chinese communists have never used. And there are no fewer than 100 submarines now based at Port.
Arthur – the port Mao helped Russia to get. Up above, China sits the greatest armed might of the whole Far East, watching and waiting, ready to strike in a few hours, when Stalin says the word “go”.
Bliicher, the planner, did not live to see his war plans come true. He was far too cautious for the aggressive Politburo, which always believes the offense is the best defense. Orders from Moscow demanded that all war plans lie attack – nothing else.
But Bliicher asked his planning staff, “Are you firmly convinced that the enemy won’t attack first? I, for one, have no such conviction.”
A stupid staff member gave the party-line reply, “Pardon me, comrade marshal, what country will dare attack the Soviet Union?”
Bliicher persisted in making defensive plans. Then, as far as Moscow was concerned, he made another error. He ordered Soviet planes not to fight Japan aircraft in the 1938 frontier tight at Lake Khasan, and so prevented this big border battle from spreading into full-scale war. This was too much for the Politburo, which instantly summoned him to Moscow’. There Bliicher received his final humiliation – the arrest in the Metropole Hotel by a mere corporal’s guard. He was marched off. Nothing has been heard of him since.
Bliicher never planned to invade Japan – and I doubt if the U.S.S.R. will try even now. The narrow English Channel stopped Hitler’s mighty Wehrmacht. Yet the Sea of Japan is bo broad that it makes the Channel seem a narrow ditch. Water jumps are shorter from Soviet Sakhalin and the Kuriles, but these bleak islands lack the huge porta and supply bases to launch a mass invasion.
As for the United States, the U.S.S.R. did not need to plan an impossible overseas invasion. The Soviet strategy is to conquer Eurasia first, isolate the United States, throw America into economic depression, then use fifth columns to paint the White House red.
Knowing the Korean war plan, and seeing it come true, I wonder when other planned aggressions will get Stalin’s signal to start. For the Kremlin long has had plans to invade every land neighbor from Korea to Finland.
One of the major designs is the plan to invade Iran by the coordinated action of Soviet Turkestan and Caucasian troops. From several years service in the Caucasian military district, I know this plan well. Iran has two great attractions for Russia – oil and warm-water ports. “
