Several American school children, including one in a Boy Scouts of America uniform, recite the pledge of allegiance during World War 2. Scene broadens to encompass a school yard filled with elementary school students reciting the pledge in front of an American flag flying high on a pole. As scene fades images appear of battleships firing guns; an F4F airplane taking off from an aircraft carrier; landing craft approaching a beach; American soldiers fighting with small arms and a flame thrower, in jungles of New Guinea; a U.S. gun crew firing heavy artillery; and a U.S. P-38 aircraft on a rainy runway, spraying water as it takes off, in the Aleutian Islands. U.S. troops firing automatic weapons on a Pacific Island. A B-17 pilot wearing an oxygen mask in his cockpit, flying in a formation creating contrails at high altitude over Germany. Waist gunner firing at an attacking German fighter plane that explodes in air. U.S. troops in jeeps moving over jungle road. U.S. ski troops on snow in Iceland heading downhill toward their tents in the snow. American troops during amphibious landing in the Philippines. U.S. troops aboard army halftracks on desert in Iran. American paratroopers dropping from C-47 aircraft over France. U.S. soldiers marching through two large gates with cadre of Chinese soldiers in China. American troops fighting in Italy and firing a 155mm howitzer. U.S. infantry following a sherman tank over a war-torn landscape with shells bursting nearby. Crowded, busy street scenes of traffic and pedestrians in Manhattan, New York City, and Chicago, Illinois. Army tanks being manufactured by war production workers in a Detroit war production plant or factory. A Los Angeles shipyard filled with workers at shift change. Closeups of individual American soldiers in combat helmets. U.S. troops descending rope nets from transport ships to board landing craft, and approaching the beaches of Normandy, France, under fire, on D-day, June 6, 1944. Views of the Statue of Liberty, including closeups.
Waves crashing on a rocky shore. View of Plymouth Rock, with "1620" engraved on it. Coastline with hills and sea. A forest and primitive house of sticks. A church with watch tower. Reenactment of early immigrants felling trees and busy in a 17th Century settlement in Massachusetts. View upward of tall tree. Column on a building in Virginia; portico and clock on a building in Rhode Island;and a church in Carolina.The minuteman statue in Battle Green, Lexington,Massachusetts. Image of colonist James Otis. Statue of Thomas Jefferson. Image of Thomas Paine. Statue of Patrick Henry. Reenactment of British Red Coats charging up a hill during the American revolution. John Trumbull's painting, the "Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776" in the Capitol Rotunda, Washington,DC. A copy of the document. Reenactment of General Washington's troops and snowy encampment at Valley Forge, in 1777. The colonial troops marching in the snow.Painting of George Washington praying in a glen. Painting by John Trumbull of Lord Cornwallis surrendering to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, October 17, 1781. The Constitution of the United States in the National Archives, Washington, DC. Liberty bell swinging. Early American flag with 13 stars and 13 stripes. Animated map showing the original 13 States. Reenactment of early settlers, in wagon trains, pushing Westward from the original colonies. New States being added to the animated map, until all 48 continental American States are filled in. An American flag displaying 48 States.
Streets of Manhattan New York City crowded with pedestrians prior to World War II. Views of Americans at work: miners; farmers; factory workers; office workers. A drafting room. Montage of inventions in America: lightning rod atop roof; cotton gin in operation; telegrapher using a key; anesthetists in operating theater; rotary newspaper printing press; a telephone; an arc welder; early incandescent lamp; early submarines; steam turbine; 4-engine high wing airliner; early X-ray tube; gyroscope compass; singer sewing machine; early television; farmer hooks cows to mechanical milking machine, cat expresses dismay at not getting milk; architectural draftsmen at work; rows of apartment buildings; automobiles crowding roads; sanitation street sweeper truck at work; eggs and dairy products in refrigerated case; Surgical team in an operating theater; Scenes in a modern U.S. hospital; children being cared for, and in schools and colleges; Soldiers marching during World War I; U.S. soldiers marching in World War II; people relaxing on crowded beach; recreational hunting and fishing activity; A football game in progress; a baseball game; horseracing; track & field events; a rodeo; a basketball game; golfing; Ten pin bowling; boys play marbles; frog jumping contest; skiing; springboard diving; motorboat racing; water skiing;ice skaters with sails; Joe Louis boxing with Max Schmeling in 1938; auto racing with cars crashing; Railroad timetables in a rack; Henry Dreyfuss Commodore Vanderbilt New York Central locomotive and interior of dining car; 1935 Chevrolet sedan pulling a trailer; Road sign "Arizona welcomes you"; Motorcycle policeman pulls driver over; roadside motor hotel; girl serving at drive-in diner; signs for hot dogs, beer, cheesburgers; workers preparing sandwiches, pancakes,bacon and eggs, coffee and coca cola, using some machinery; Customers eating at a lunch counter; Welcome sign at Van Nuys California with symbols for Kiwanis, American Legion, Rotary; a Delta Sigma Phi fraternity building. Scene of a person's hand signing a membership certificate document for the Calibou Lake Mountain Club.
Brief views of ordinary American people and their music and reading activities, including: Scenes of many different radios in all locations, and hands on dials of radios, including console radios, portable radios in many rooms of the house, car radios, and hand-carried (vintage boom box) radio. A jukebox and a bobby soxer (bobby socks fashion), dancing; Crowd dancing to a swing band at a jazz night club; Older people doing country dances; Xavier Cugat conducting his orchestra; Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony being played in the Hollywood Bowl; African American jazz musician playing trumpet; a school marching band; newspaper being printed on a printing press; a news stand filled with papers and magazines; numerous city newspapers; a library filled with books; a Dick Tracy comic strip.
Scenes of American life, with narrator describing values of American people. American people gather outside a church. Signs outside many different places of worship in the United States. Americans voting in an election; patronizing a food market and a drug store; bathtub gin being made during prohibition; countless of bottles of liquor; Congress repealing prohibition; stock market ticker tape machine falling to floor; Derrick moving bucket of concrete for construction; outlines of future highways; modern apartment buildings; people emerging from subway station; pedestrians filling city streets; Americans worshiping inside various churches; An American town; Cars on a crowded road; a crowded beach. Sequence closes with, newer, brief images of fallen soldiers in Pacific theater of World War II.
Americans in bed listen to radio announcing beginning of World War 2 in Europe. French troops deploying to Maginot Line fortresses and firing their heavy guns. German heavy artillery firing. A rail gun firing. Pollsters gather American opinions about the war.Congress convenes in Special session. President Roosevelt requests changes in Neutrality Act. Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota argues against and Senator Elbert D. Thomas (Utah) argues for changes in neutrality. Pollsters seek American's opinions. U.S. Congress ends arms embargo. The ship SS American Farmer (United States Lines) underway in the ocean. Animated map of Asia and views of Japanese forces bombarding China. Chinese civilians fleeing bombardment. Japanese soldiers executing two Chinese men. Dead Chinese civilians. American housewife being asked opinion about Chinese-Japanese conflict. Japanese ships load U.S. scrap iron, as some Americans protest. Dean Acheson, Assistant Secretary of State explaining U.S. law and decision to stop all exports to Japan in Summer 1941.
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