An animated map of Canada and the United States. Radio communications Tower over hilltop. Workmen installing underground communications cables. Telephone communications in everyday life. Men and women working in an office. United Press International teletypewriters on a desk. Man looks at a screen and speaks over the phone. A cable-laying ship in operation at sea. An animated map showing the undersea cable connections to various places.
Emergency response and disaster preparations in the United States. Stockpiles of emergency equipment and supplies. Scene of storm damage and recovery actions. Electric utility response and repairs. A huge emergency diesel generator. Laying emergency by-pass cable with a convoy of tractors and cable-laying machinery. Emergency communications cables circumventing areas of disaster.
A radar antenna turning inside an early warning system radar's geodesic spherical cover. Information from early warning system radars being shown on the North American Air Defense (NORAD) Headquarters displays, in Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. A NORAD radar site. An early warning radar site on an off-shore platform, A U.S. Air Force EC-121 Lockheed Constellation Warning Star aircraft in flight. A U.S. Navy ship equipped with early warning radar. View of NORAD Headquarters Command Center.
North American Air Defense (NORAD) Headquarters at Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. NORAD Commander, USAF General Lawrence S. Kuter and Canadian Deputy enter the control room. Airman reads incoming teletype message and updates data on status board. View of a NORAD building. Air Defense controllers viewing radar screens. Two F-102 fighter intercepters are scrambled. They fire air-to-air missiles. A BOMARC missile is fired. Nike missiles are fired.
Footage of cold war defense simulation exercise: Airmen post information on displays in a Command Post of the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC). View of senior officers in upper tier of NORAD Headquarters Command Center or War Room in Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Duty officers communicate by telephone. SAC B-47, B-52, and B-58 bombers are ordered to take off. Command Post duty officer reports to a General. Red telephone (rotary type) on the General's desk. (NORAD is North American Aerospace Defense Command).
Dramatization of Cold War defense exercise: The White House in Washington DC. Duty officer in NORAD Headquarters Command Center war room at Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs speaks on telephone. Orders transmitted to SAC Missile control centers. Close-up view of a small black box control with label "Warning circuit - Hand off" with lights and two switches between settings, "War" and "Key" and the other says "GRP" and "Key". A silo containing a Titan Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) is opened. The missile is launched. Civilian officials in White House monitor the situation. Civilian police officers are notified. Early 1960s view of pedestrians and traffic on busy streets and sidewalks of New York City. People on city streets going about their business. A NYC Transit Authority Mack bus goes by, with slogan on its side "Ride The Surface Way".