War Comes to America

WHY WE FIGH A series of seven information films

WAR COMES TO AMERICA

Information Film #7

Produced by the:

WAR DEPARTMENT ARMY PICTORIAL SERVICE

For:
INFORMATION AND EDUCATION DIVISION

Music by:
The Army Air Force Orchestra

I pledge alliance to the flag, of

The United States of America,

...and to the Republic for which it

stands one nation under God...

...indivisible with justice

and liberty for all...

...in the jungles of New Guinea,

...on the barren shores

of the Aleutians...

...in the tropic heat of

the Pacific Islands,

...in the sub-zero cold over

the skies of Germany,

...in Burma and Iceland,

...the Philippines and Iran,

...France,

...in China and Italy,

Americans, fighting.

Fighting over an area extending

seven-eights of the way around the world.

Men from the green hills of New England,

...the sun-baked plains of the Middle West,

the cotton fields of the South,

...the close-packed street of Manattan,

Chicago...

...the teaming factories of Detroit,

Los Angeles...

...the endless stretching

distances of the Southwest...

...men from the hills and from the plains,

men from the villages and the cities...

...Bookkeepers, soda jerks, mechanics,

...college student, rich man, poor man,

...beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer,

merchant, chief, now veteran fighting men.

Yet two years ago, many had never fired a gun,

Seen the ocean, or been of the ground.

Americans. Fighting for their country

while half a world away from it.

Fighting for their country and

more than their country.

Fighting for an idea.

An idea bigger than the country.

Without the idea, the country might

only have remained a willingness.

Without the country, the idea might

have remained only a dream.

Over this ocean,

1607, Jamestown...

1620, Plymouth Rock...

Here was America.

The sea, the sky, the virgin continent.

We came in search of freedom, facing

Unknown dangers rather than bend...

...the knew of bow to tyranny.

Out of the native oak and pine, we built

a house, a church, a watchtower.

We cleared a field and there grew up

a colony of free citizens.

We carved new states out of

the green wilderness.

Virginia, Massachusetts,

Rhode Island, Carolina.

Then came the first test in

the defense of that liberty.

1775, Lexington

Our leader spoke our deepest needs.

Colonists are by the law of nature free-born,

as indeed all men are!"- James Otis

It is the right of the people to alter or abolish and to

institute new government."- Thomas Jefferson

These are the times that try mers souls."

- Thomas Paine

...but as for me, give me liberty or

give me death."- Patrick Henry

In the midst of battle it happened.

The idea grew. The idea took form.

Something new was expressed by men.

A new and revolutionary doctrine.

The greatest created force in human relations.

All men are created equal."

All men are entitled to the blessings life,

liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

That's the goal we had set for ourselves.

If it meant hanging, victory meant

a world in which Americans rule themselves.

1777, Valley Forge

We fought and froze, suffered and died.

For what? For the future freedom

of all Americans.

A few of us doubted and despaired,

most of us prayed and endured it all.

1781, Yorktown

Now we were a free-independent nation...

...the new idea had won its first test.

Now to pass it on to future Americans.

The Constitution. The sacred charter of

"We the people..."

The blood and sweat of "We the people..."

The life, liberty, and happiness of

"We the people..."

The people were to rule. Not some of the people,

Not the best people or the worst,

...not the rich people or the poor,

but "We the people..."

All the people.

Proclaim liberty throughout all the land,

unto all the inabitants thereof"

In this brotherhood America was born.

One nation, indivisible, with liberty

and justice for all.

It began as 13 states along

the Atlantic seaboard.

We pushed along the Allegiances,

the Ohio River,

...the Mississippi, the last far

range of the distant Rockies.

We carried freedom with us.

No aristocratic classes here.

No King, no Nobel, or Prince.

No State Church, no courts,

no parasites.

No divine right of man to rule man.

Here humanity was making a clean

fresh start from scratch.

Behind we left new states. Chips of

the old block, woven together by freedom.

Until finally we were one nation.

A land of hope and opportunity that

had risen out of a skeptical world.

A light was shining.

Freedom's light.

From every country and every climb, men saw that

light and tuned their faces towards it."

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled

masses yearning to breathe free...

...the wretched refuge of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-toots to me.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door"

As stranger to one another we came,

and built a country.

And the country built us into Americans.

The sweat of man from all nations,

was poured out to build a new.

The sweat of our first Shepard,

the English, the Scots,

...the Dutch, building the workshop

of New England.

And the Italian in the sulfur mines

of Louisiana.

Of the Frenchmen and the Swiss in

the vineyards of California and New York state.

Of the Dane, the Norwegian, the Swede.

Seeding the good earth to make

the mid-west bloom with grain.

Of the Pole and the Welsh.

Of the Negro harvesting cotton

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