Film opens with bongo drummer playing and other Cuban musicians playing instruments while dancers in fetching costumes dance and enjoy themselves. Scene shifts to view from water of Havana skyline and then to automobile traffic on a busy street in a commercial district of the city. A Busy street crowded with pedestrians on sidewalks. Cuban workers leaving an industrial plant at shift end. Smoke pouring from three tall smoke stacks in background. Large machines employed in a factory. A construction worker in the cab of earth moving equipment. A field worker rotating a long wooden boom by hand. Men cutting sugar cane with machetes. A farmer opening gate to allow water into an irrigation network. View of water rushing into the irrigation ditches and entering the area of crops. A farmer using cattle to pull his plow. Cattle entering a stockyard. Shoppers at an open-air market filled with all kinds of fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products. Families of poorer people in rural areas outside of Havana. They live in shacks ahd are photographed with their small children. Next, two uniformed members of the Cuban National Police (Policia Nacional de Cuba) are seen. (The narrator mentions that Cuban people lived for 60 years under a succession of corrupt and often dictatorial leaders.) View of men in a line being monitored by a National policeman. Fulgencio Batista y ZaldÃvar is seen next to his wife, Marta Fernández Miranda, as they cast ballots in the 1952 Presidential election. Glimpse of several Cuban National Police lined up looking over a wall. Next, members of Fidel Castro's resistance movement are seen silhouetted against the sky, as they walk, carrying arms, in the mountain regions of Cuba. Fidel, himself is silhouetted as his men walk past him. Views of Castro's men moving through the rugged mountain terrain as shots are being fired. The combat becomes more intense. The views are from the Castro forces as they engage in fire fights with Batista forces (unseen). Machine guns are heard, and an explosion occurs. More views of the Castro forces using a machine gun and small arms. Scene shifts to a public square in Havana as it fills with people celebrating the downfall of Batista on 1s of January, 1959. Crowds surround Fidel Castro as he arrives in Havana. The crowds cheer him wildly. as the hero, and liberator of the Cuban people. Castro addresses the crowds from a balcony, promising them elections, land reform,freedom and the rights guaranteed under the Cuban Constitution of 1940. Glimpse of a copy of that document. View of Manuel Urrutia raising his hands to acknowledge the crowd, when he was named President on January 3rd, 1959. Fidel Castro arriving in New York City and greeted as a Cuban Nationalist hero. Castro waving to crowds of admirers. In Washington,DC, he is seen placing a memorial wreath at the Statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial. Castro speaking at a press conference in Washington,DC. Speaking from a podium, in English, he states emphatically that he is not a communist. Castro is seen later, back in Havana at a large political gathering, where he and Che Guevara along with other revolutionaries, engage others in publicly broadcast discussions and debates. A barefoot boy is brought into the center of the proceedings, where he points an accusing finger toward someone (not clear who that person is). View inside a newspaper printing plant, as Narrator states Castro began attacks on the Press resulting in the demise of the Free Press, and its takeover by government run newspaper "HOY." View of Hoy sign in front of a newspaper building. Communist propaganda seen dominating papers and magazines at a news stand. Small bust of Lenin seen for sale.
Rebel uprising against Batista government ongoing in 1957: Tanks on the streets. Officials enter a building. Cuban President Fulgencio Batista greets dignitaries. 13 March 1957: Leader of the student movement, Jose Antonio Echeverria, organizes an attack on the Presidential Palace. Batista escapes and the student leaders are shot. The fighting spills on to the streets. Soldiers keep a vigil on the streets amidst the demonstrations and rioting. People and cars on the street. A policeman runs across a street. A man carries a wounded woman. Bullet holes. The police shoot down Jose Antonio Echeverria. A man and a woman grieve. Supplies including food, arms, ammunition and medical supplies reach the Sierra Maestra Mountains. A jeep driven on a dirt road in the jungle. A soldier drinks water. One checks another's blood pressure. A soldier patrols on a roof. 12 July 1957: Fidel Castro issues a manifesto. He talks to his soldiers and other revolutionaries. Havana: Buildings and high rises in the city. Anti-Batista opposition increases. Soldiers and officers. A man shows a bullet ridden car to an officer. Santiago De Cuba: People carry casket of underground rebel Frank Pais. A large crowd gathers to join In the procession. Women mourn his death and chant "Vengeance." A police officer and his soldiers inspect dead bodies of revolutionaries lying on the sidewalk. A framer suspected of aiding Castro's men is hanged in the jungle. Men seated in a court as a woman testifies. A woman prays at a grave.
Prime suspect in President John F Kennedy's assassination Lee Harvey Oswald in Police Headquarters, Dallas,Texas. Police officials, news reporters, and photographers crowd the hallway as Oswald is escorted by detectives into a room where he speaks to the assembled reporters. This was after he was charged with the killing of Police officer Tibbet and before he was charged with the killing of President Kennedy..
College student James H Meredith with Constance Baker Motley and a man walking at the University of Mississippi, after Meredith became the first African American to enroll in the school's history. University campus buildings seen. Police at the campus. Crowd gathered. Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett's car arrives at campus. Governor Barnett emerges from the car and waves. Police officer talks to another man. People applaud. President John F Kennedy addresses the nation stating that Americans are free to disagree with the law, but not to disobey it. He appeals to people of Mississippi to comply peacefully with civil rights integration laws. Army troops on road. Former Major General Edwin Walker, from Texas, is seen in a car during arrest process for having incited insurrection. A policeman checks the car with Walker in it. Troops pass by in military jeeps and maintain order.
Damage from protests against the Communist Party of the Netherlands, as supporters of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 rallied in other countries, also, against communism. Scene outside the Felix Meritis hall at 324 Keizersgracht, Centrum, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. Broken glass in a window outside the headquarters offices of the Communist Party of the Netherlands. View in the broken window of bricks, and an edition of the Dutch Communist Party newspaper "De Waarheid." The ledge below the broken window has lettering "...RUWIELEN PLAATSEN S.V.P." A bicycle leaning against the wall beside the damage. A crowd of citizens standing on a bridge. Policemen keep a vigil in front of a looted storefront with broken glass. Sign "Boekhandel" above the storefront. A streetcar or trolley passes in the street in front of the store. Scenes of an injured citizen demonstrator in front of a building by a sign, "P. Filedt Kok Arts". An ambulance passes by a crowd. Another looted building with broken glass. Scenes of police pulling several people out of the Felix Meritis building. Photographers race to capture pictures as police chase away the crowd and onlookers.
Black market activities between Japanese civilians and members of the United States occupation force in Kyoto, Japan. An American driver of a jeep deals with Japanese civilians and does some illegal transaction. Two guards of the military police arrive and grab the trio. Military police checks the documents of the American. Japanese Civil Police arrests Japanese Nationals.
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