"Here is a pictorial record of a decade of war that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Western Hemisphere.
"The material for this film was taken from the news reels and from the enemy films in the custody of the United States Government.
"Nothing has been staged. Every scene in this record is authentic.
"This film represents an attempt to record history in the making. The Editors are Americans, and therefore partisan, but every effort has been made to let the facts speak for themselves."
Using material largely taken from secret government archives, the film presents President Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor "Day of Infamy" speech; interventionist and isolationist speeches by U.S. politicians, including Wendell Wilkie; a violent German-American Bund Rally at New York City's Madison Square Garden; the invasion and exploitation of China; the Italian invasion of Ethiopia; Italian Fascisti at Japanese rally; the Spanish Civil War; the signing of the Munich Agreement that divided Czechoslovakia; the Anschluss of Austria; the invasion of Czechoslovakia; Hitler mocks FDR from the Reichstag; the invasion of Poland; Heinkel 111 and Junkers 87 Stuka planes bomb targets over Poland; strafed refugees in Polish countryside; the destruction of Warsaw; German troops parade through Warsaw; the Maginot Line; the invasion of Denmark & Norway; the invasion of Holland and Belgium; the bombing of Rotterdam; the German breakthrough of Allied lines; Dunkerque; the Fall of France; the French surrender at Compiegne; the bombing of London; the invasion of Russia; the fall of the Philippines; Lend Lease; U.S. arm manufacturing; Pan-american opposition to fascism; more (Black And White, 44 Minutes).