Made in the 1980s towards the end of the Cold War by Roymark Limited for the NATO Information Service, “The Atlantic Alliance” presents a history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and discusses the reasons for its continued existence. A combination of color and black-and-white archival footage, the film appears to try and dissuade sentiments that the Reagan-era arms build-ups constituted a new arms race, with the narrator noting that the aims of NATO are to preserve peace, avoid an arms race, and deter nuclear aggression. NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defense, whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

Film opens, mass peace protest, men, women, children carry homemade banners and signs (0:06). Title page, opening credits (0:49). Archival footage destruction, gun battles, fire from WWII reminder of tragedy of war (1:00). Destroyed building, streets, ruins of Cologne Cathedral in 1946 Cologne; Footage cuts to shots of city rebuilt: Busy shopping street, highway, Flora und Botanischer Garten (1:39). Sequence graphic still images armed conflicts around the world across Latin America, Africa (2:15). Contextualizing NATO’s establishment, closing days of WWII: Nazi General Kinzel signs surrender of German land, sea, and air forces (2:39). Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin at Yalta Conference (2:48). American soldiers returning home aboard ship (2:52). Soviet soldiers mobilize on Red Square (3:03). Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech (March 5, 1946) at Westminster College (3:25). New York City skyline, State of Liberty (3:53). April 1949 12 countries sign North Atlantic Treaty at Departmental Auditorium Washington D.C. (4:00). Flags of NATO member states at NATO headquarters, Brussels, Belgium (4:40). Economic recovery, industrialization across Europe, factory assembly lines and mass farming (4:46). Phone operators at NATO HQ speak French, answer busy phone lines (5:30). Various shots NATO HQ interior: Reception, employees buy newspaper and snacks at shop (5:46). North Atlantic Council meeting (6:05). NATO subcommittee meetings i.e. politics committee (6:35). NATO Military Chiefs of Defense meeting (6:50). Animated globe demonstrates strategic division of NATO forces based on region; Three Zones: SACLANT, CINCHAN, SACEUR (7:16). Soviet October Revolution Parade 1978 (8:12). Basic principles of NATO’s strategy: Deterrence and Détente; Animation explaining both concepts, NATO military forces/ triad of forces (conventional non-nuclear weapons, intermediate and short-range nuclear forces, long-range nuclear weapons), flexible response (8:47). Mushroom cloud of nuclear explosion (11:34). Anti-nuclear, complete disarmament demonstrators arrested in the UK (11:46). Peace demonstrations 1930s in Trafalgar Square, London (12:18). Gathering of 108,000 Nazi troops at Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will 1935, Hitler speech (12:28). Oxford Union Society King and Country debate 1933 (12:44). Consequences of Europe’s failed collective response to Naziism: Neville Chamberlain holds up paper Munich Agreement, Nazi soldiers march into Poland, Czechoslovakia (13:17). Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial (13:34). Warsaw Pact, more footage from 1978 October Revolution Parade (13:58). Translation of Russian-language Soviet article, footage of workers setting up red flags around Moscow, posters of Soviet leadership (14:28). 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Soviet-Afghan War (14:58). Poland’s Solidarity Movement protests (13:32). 1984 Washington Statement on East-West Relations (16:20). 1975 Helsinki Final Act concluding the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (16:30). The Stockholm Conference 1984 (16:46). Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions talks in Vienna (1973) (17:07). Jet d’Eau, Geneva; USA and USSR Talks in Geneva c.1981 on intermediate-range nuclear weapons (17:24). Strategic Arms Limitations Talks/Treaty (SALT) I (Nixon and Gorbachev shake hands) and II (Carter and Gorbachev sign papers in Vienna) (18:06). President Reagan leads Geneva Summit (1985), Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) (18:31). Montage daily life across European cities, narrator closing words (19:18). Closing credits (19:58). Film ends (20:05).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2K. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com