Season 1

Dyer analyzes two centuries of world military history and defines the milestones along the road to total war: the birth of nationalism, conscription, the mobilization of large armies, the invention of the machine gun, tank and atomic bomb, and the deliberate killing of civilians. From Napoleon to Nagasaki, The Road to Total War charts how the social, economic and technological developments of the last two hundred years have made warfare so efficient that it can now destroy us all.

Photographed on location at the United States Marine Corps Parris Island Training Depot in South Carolina, this film follows a group of young recruits through their grueling ten-week "basic training." Anybody's Son Will Do provides insight into techniques that all armies use to indoctrinate recruits with a new set of morals--techniques that transform ordinary citizens into soldiers ready to kill, even to die, for their country.

This film is about professional soldiers--the career officers who devote their lives to maintaining military organizations and nurturing the attitudes that go with them. With extraordinary frankness, officers from six nations recount their combat experiences, describe how they come to terms with their job demands, and explain how sophisticated technology is changing the nature of their profession.

To explain the link between war and nationalism, The Deadly Game of Nations focuses on the Middle East, a volatile area claimed by many nations. While making a film about sovereignty, the film crew unexpectedly found itself amidst the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. From the war-torn streets of Beirut to the Golan Heights and the border kibbutz of Kfar Giladi, the film provides a close-up view of the devastating effect of continuous war on the lives of both soldiers and civilians.

Along the vigilantly patrolled line separating East and West Germany lie half the world's conventional (non-nuclear) armed forces--the Warsaw Pact forces to the east, the NATO Alliance to the west. It is here in Europe that military experts predict the next major world war will begin, initially with conventional weapons. In Keeping the Old Game Alive, top military leaders from both NATO and Warsaw Pact countries describe how any future superpower confrontation might evolve. The frightening outcome of one recent NATO war exercise was rapid escalation to all-out nuclear war once supplies of conventional weaponry were exhausted.

This film follows the development of the nuclear arms race from Hiroshima to the nuclear stalemate of today. It examines the Western military-industrial complex and its Warsaw Pact counterpart, and explains how the concept of "limited" nuclear war came to be. Notes on Nuclear War shows the devastating effect of nuclear bombs; American and Soviet physicians describe the medical consequences and the inability of their profession to cope with the casualties.

Goodbye War looks at some of the causes and consequences of the last two World Wars and of recent small conflicts that have brought us perilously close to nuclear war. As well, it examines why attempts to limit arms and achieve lasting peace have so far failed. Dyer outlines political and international peace initiatives and asks citizens of several nations for their views on war and peace. The series concludes with the warning that we must find a way to say goodbye to war if the human race is to survive.