Camera pans across Turkish officers of the 14th Army Corps assembled in Erzurum,to receive American Army Major General James G. Harbord, Head of a U.S. post-war Military Mission to Turkey and Armenia. The camera pan ends with members of a brass band and their instruments. Next, General Harbord is seen saluting as he walks past the assembled officers. He is accompanied by his staff officers and escorted by Turkish General Kazim Karabekir Pasha.
Members of the American Military Mission to Turkey and Armenia, escorted by Turkish military hosts, sight-seeing in Erzurum. They stand in front of a Twin Minaret Madrasa (the Seljuk Çifte Minare medrese) dating to 1271. . The city of Erzurum is seen in background. Camera pans up the structure and its two flanking minarets.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini standing together in an open car during a motorcade in Munich, in 1938. Civilian spectators render Nazi salutes as they pass. Next, British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, arriving for the Munich treaty conference, steps from a British Airways Lockheed Model 14 passenger plane. An honor guard of helmeted and white-gloved German soldiers stands at attention during his welcome. Adolf Hitler climbs stairs of Berghof together with Chamberlain and Hitler's interpretor, Paul Otto Schmidt, on September 15, 1938 for their conference. Crowds of Germans give Nazi salute and cheer as Hitler and Mussolini appear on a balcony. Prime Minister Chamberlain back from the conference, speaks to the crowd at Heston Aerodrome on 30 September 1938, saying, among other thing, "We regard the agreement signed last night, and the Anglo-German naval agreement as symbolic of the desires of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again." Damaged buildings and ruins of city. Mussolini giving an impassioned speech. Italian cavalry carrying out a charge in Ethiopia. Italian troops employing machine guns in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War circa 1936. Italian infantry charging across sand dunes. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie at the League of Nations podium. Nazi Swastika eagle statue. A formation of German troops, during the Anschluss (German annexation of Austria,in 1938). Hitler at a podium. People rendering Nazi salute in annexed city. At this point, the film transitions to 1950 as North Korean troops cross the 39th parallel and start the Korean War. A nighttime artillery barrage. North Korean troops firing a Browning M1917 machine gun and rifles. The feet of American soldiers are jumping out of foxholes as U.S.M26 Pershing tanks fire their guns from tilted positions below hills. A Pershing tank crosses a bridge back into South Korea, where a sign reads:"You are now crossing the 38th parallel, Co.B 728 MP." Scene shifts again, to President Lyndon B. Johnson delivers speech about Vietnam at a news conference on July 28, 1965, in which he states,among other things, "Three times in my lifetime...Americans have gone to far lands to fight for freedom..." as he explains U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the Vietnam War.
Automobiles, of the American Military Mission to Armenia, pass through the gateway of a city in Turkey. View of local people moving goods on pack animals and in carts, across a bridge over the Devegechid River in Turkey. Members of the Mission encamped on a plain. Smoke rising from their cooking fires near wagons. View from above of the mission vehicles and campsite, in background,near the river and bridge. Pack animals seem grazing near their burdens, removed and stacked in the foreground. A mission automobile moves past other elements of the expedition, as they break camp and get underway. Camera pans the barren hills and village houses atop a cliff.
Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol at United States embassy in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey. Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol, other officials, sailors, and women pose for a group photograph at United States Embassy. The Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol in Istanbul. United States sailors visit a city in Turkey. They visit marketplaces and see street vendors. Shop keepers stand at the shops. Street vendor carries goods basket on his head.
Earthquake causes heavy toll in Western Turkey. Rubble seen on the streets due to earth quake in Western Turkey. Rescue workers probe wreckage for dead bodies. Hospital beds are fully occupied. Beds are laid outside the hospitals.