The Liberty Defense Perimeter (LDP) was a 4,500-mile boundary line that served as the main instrument of the United States Department of War's plan for defending the United States against the Chimera.[1] In the event of an alien invasion, the area within the LDP would serve as a sanctuary for humanity, with the perimeter itself fortified with a series of armed defense towers. Final fortification of the line was completed on August 14, 1952.[2]
History[]
The Liberty Defense Perimeter was first conceptualized on September 17, 1950, by the U.S. Mainland Defense Strategic Taskforce 3B, in which they had analyzed enemy battle tactics and discussed hypothetical invasion scenarios the Chimera might deploy in an attack on North America. Through three main scenarios (codenamed Yukon Thrust, Continental Pincer, and Heartland Defense) it was determined that the entire continental United States could not be successfully defended; an attack from the coasts or from Alaska would overwhelm any human resistance in which the Chimera can easily bypass lighter lines of defense and encircle American military forces. Efforts to slow the invaders' advance through a massive "mobile reserve unit" of inexperienced draftees and chemical weapons would only delay the inevitable, as massive human casualties would result from losses to tactically superior Chimera and from their own chemical weapons caused by volatile wind currents. However, an attack from the northeast would allow for the creation of a heavily armed "Liberty Zone" in the southern United States, where the government and the remaining American population would outlast the Chimeran onslaught behind an immobile defense line, and lead to a stalemate.[3]
For two years, military and contracted civilian forces, working in conjunction with the Special Research Projects Administration began a lengthy surveying project for the LDP.[1] After the Chimera launched their first attack on America on August 14, 1951, President Noah Grace approved the construction of the LDP on September 3, 1951.[1] The first construction work began along the northern quadrant of the U.S., set back approximately 300 miles from the Canadian border. This gave the nation a buffer zone of acceptable loss and provided the time to properly construct the LDP.[1] The LDP was completed almost a year later on August 14, 1952.[2][1] Eventually, the U.S. government was relocated inside the Perimeter, to Denver, Colorado.[4]
On May 15, 1953, the Chimeran fleet launched an invasion of the United States from the coastlines, overrunning most the remaining populated cities and military installations, and moving rapidly inland. That afternoon the Chimera attempted to breach the LDP in Twin Falls, Idaho, but were repulsed by the city's gun towers, which had been hastily reactivated by Sentinel Echo Team.[5]
After SRPA forces failed to deactivate the tower network at the Chicago Tower and the Holar Tower, the assembled Chimeran fleet launched a massive assault on the LDP at its southern perimeter on May 28, 1953. The Perimeter was breached and between 60-80 million people were killed or converted, including then President Harvey McCullen and his entire Cabinet after the Chimeran fleet blanketed Denver with Spire missiles. However, the losses the Chimera suffered to do so were extensive, and the U.S. military managed to hold the last remaining protection camp in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.[6] The North American campaign had reduced the Chimeran fleet to just eighteen airships by the time of Operation Black Eden, very nearly fulfilling the Perimeter's promise of a stalemate.
Evacuation Plan[]
Under the U.S. Department of War's plans for evacuation, government, military, and civilian populations outside the LDP were evacuated in stages. Informed by studies on the Chimera's swift conquest of Europe, the Department of War grimly acknowledged that massive civilian causalities to be unavoidable during the evacuation, in which analysts estimated that between 10% and 15% of the total population (15 to 22 million) would suffer casualties in the first weeks of the initial invasion.[7] Furthermore, a premature evacuation was deemed to be detrimental as it would cripple the American economy; devastate essential production capacity; and incite mass panic. After key personnel were evacuated, the government issued evacuation quotas for civil authorities that were still functioning during and after the invasion.[8] Refugees who were not accepted on the evacuation list were denied from entering the LDP and were discouraged, either by authority or force, from establishing camps or settlements at the border of the LDP.[9][8]
By the time of Harvey McCullen's presidency, the strict evacuation quotas had been relieved in which McCullen attempted to bring as many Americans as possible into the LDP.[10] On July 24, 1952, McCullen declared all Americans living in the outer states to evacuate and move within the LDP, and commissioned emergency construction of an additional fifty protection camps in the LDP to accommodate the population.[2] More civilians were continuously evacuated from 1952 to 1953.[11]
Evacuation Priorities[]
- List A: Essential government personnel, House and Senate members and their families, and people on the Presidential list are the first to be evacuated.[8]
- List B: Priority personnel and their immediate families (spouses, children, and parents living in the same home). They are issued with RED evac cards.[8]
- List C: Primarily soldiers that are to be reassigned to defense towers and protection camps. They are issued with BLUE evac cards.[8]
- List D: Second wave personnel who are assigned to combat the invasion and will be admitted to the LDP as part of an orderly retreat or with orders assigning them within the LDP. They are issued with YELLOW evac cards.[8]
Defenses[]
The north and south gun towers in Twin Falls, Idaho in Resistance 2.
The LDP was defended by a network of Liberty Defense Towers, which averaged about 1400 feet tall and were placed in clusters of five, spaced 50 feet apart.[7] Each was equipped with long range weaponry and state-of-the-art invasion detection technology.[1] Overall, there were 38,780 towers along the whole of the Perimeter. The towers consisted of four crank 44mm gun emplacements surrounding a single large 90mm gun emplacement and were armed with concussion shells that could engage targets up to 50 miles away.[7][12]
Contrary to popular demand, the LDP did not encompass American coastal regions, as they were simply too disparate and vulnerable to be effectively sealed off from the threat of "outside aggressors."[1][8][7] The cities which made up the corners of the LDP were: Twin Falls, Idaho; Springfield, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; Mobile, Alabama; Montgomery, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; Houston, Texas; Midland, Texas; Tucson, Phoenix; and Flagstaff, Arizona.
Further strategies were also proposed in the event of invasion, which included the use of banned chemical weapons and the lowering of the draft age to 14.[7] The Department of War also proposed a controversial plan known as the Masada Proposal: a scorched earth policy which would entail the complete eradication of everyone in North America who was unable to be evacuated to the LDP, in order to prevent them from being converted into Chimera. The only viable method of accomplishing this in the proposal entailed the introduction of a poisonous substance into the water and food supplies of military bases and its surrounding areas to deny infected humans from obtaining U.S. military weapons and weapons systems that could threaten the LDP.[13]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Insomniac Games developed the LDP by using polygonal tools on Google Maps which they then shared through a chosen group of employees.
- In Resistance: Burning Skies, there are some photographs of the Liberty Defense Perimeter found in Richard Gorrell's office in Ellis Island, including the America First - America Only article, "OUR COASTLINES WILL BE DESTROYED".
- Also in Resistance: Burning Skies, the Liberty Defense Project appears to oversee the LDP.
References[]
- ^ a b c d e f g PA51184390
- ^ a b c Vore, Bryan (October 15, 2010). "The Official Resistance Series Timeline". Game Informer
- ^ SCNR458849
- ^ Resistance: The Gathering Storm
- ^ Resistance 2, campaign level Twin Falls
- ^ SRPA Intelligence Memorandum 19
- ^ a b c d e LDP227489WK
- ^ a b c d e f g DEP783528
- ^ NB52703A6
- ^ McCullen Issues Evacuation Orders To Major Cities
- ^ SRPA Intelligence Memorandum 12
- ^ Intel 9
- ^ MPXX336684