Hello and welcome to the session. This is Professor Farhad. In this session we're going to be looking at accounting, harmonization and specifically we're going to be looking at this topic from a historical background. So in this session you're going to see a lot of history as well as you're going to see a lot of acronyms for organization that were involved in this accounting, harmonization. This topic is obviously covered in international accounting. I doubted this will be covered on the CPA exam. Actually I can state it will not be covered on the CPA exam. As always I would like to remind you my viewers to connect with me only then. If you don't have a LinkedIn account please make sure you create one. It's very important for your professional image as well as network ability. YouTube is where I house all my lectures. Please like my lectures, share them, put them in the playlist. If you like my lectures there's someone else who would benefit from them as well. Please share the wealth. I'm also growing my Instagram account. Please connect with me on Instagram, follow me on Instagram and like my Facebook page. If you're looking for a CPA premium material I do have some product on Gumroad and I do have a website. So let's talk about this international harmonization of accounting standard. So this is going to be like basically background information. If you remember from the prior lecture we learned that accounting diversity exists and because that diversity exists it created challenges. So what happened is the accounting profession it's under pressure to do what? To eliminate those diversity, to reduce the challenges. And what are the main challenges? Well one thing we talked about is cost. Well it's going to cost a lot of money. Cross listing. If you're on a list and in other stock exchanges there's a lot of requirement you have to comply with. You're going to have limited access to to capital market. Investment decision, lending decision, those are all challenges because we have accounting diversity. So the accounting profession and the standard setters have been under pressure from who? From multinational companies, stock exchanges. Multinational companies they want to reduce their cost obviously, the cost of compliance. Stock exchanges they want more companies to be listed, securities regulators, it's easier for them to monitor the system. International lending institution, international investors, the World Bank they all want to reduce that complexity. Okay, why? Because it's easier for everyone. If we are using the same accounting standard it's easier for everyone to make decisions. So they want to reduce diversity and harmonize accounting standard and practices internationally. So we're going to be looking at in this session we're going to be looking at the International Accounting Standard Committee or IASC. And this committee is basically gone. Now we have the IASB, the International Accounting Standard Board. Basically the IASB is a continuation of the IASC. But it's very important to look at the IASC from a historical perspective to see how things evolved over time. Okay, they're both private entities and they are the main players in the harmonization and convergence effort with the support of accounting bodies, standard setters as well as capital market regulators, government authorities and financial statement prepares. Okay, so what is accounting harmonization? Well accounting harmonization is when you allow countries to have different standard as long as they don't conflict. So it doesn't have to be the same as long as they don't conflict. Now we can look at harmonization in two different ways, harmonization of accounting regulation or standard and harmonization of accounting practices. Standard and regulation basically it's what's written down, it's the same thing, but what comes to practices we might have different practices or we might have the same practices. So harmonization is a process that reduce alternative while retaining a high degree of flexibility in accounting. So what you do is rather than everyone using a different method you want to reduce harmonization reduces those alternative at the same time, keep in flexibility, keep in flexibility. Now bear in mind harmonization is different than standardization or uniformity which implies the elimination of alternatives and harmonization you might have more than one method. Okay, you would reduce the alternatives but you will have more than one. And the objective of harmonization is to have comparable financial statements from companies in different countries and that's the main problem. The main problem is if I'm an investor, if I'm a lender, how do I make a decision if I need to lend money in another country if they're using a different system? Okay, harmonization of regulation which is called Dijon harmonization which is the harmonization of the standard that's not necessarily produce harmonization of practices. Although you have the same rules in different countries but the way that rule is being implemented it could be different in practice which is de facto harmonization which we'll look at some of the reasons. Now keep in mind we're not talking about convergence yet we're gonna keep convergence we'll discuss later. Convergence is a little bit different it's the enforcement of a single set of accepted standard by regulatory bodies and this is one possible definition of convergence again we'll talk about convergence later on because you don't want to confuse convergence with harmonization. So why the factor of harmonization is difficult? Why is it difficult to have similar practices? There are many reasons we look at them in prior lectures legal reasons basis for account quality of audit may not be the same in different countries different countries might have different standards for example in the US we have the PCAOB which is the public company accounting oversight board and the reason we have PCAOB because we have a series of accounting fraud which let the securities fraud therefore the government had more now they have more oversight over the auditors well that may not be the case in different countries so different countries will have different requirement therefore the way you're going to do you're going to be doing auditing in one country it will be different in another because each country is different and we talked about this earlier also enforcement mechanism how do you enforce your securities laws how do you enforce if somebody violated accounting rules is it criminal offense is it then the civil offense for example in the US we have the SEC the SEC does not prosecute if there's any federal case will be FBI will prosecute so in different countries the rules might be different again cultural differences we talked about this some some some cultures are more secretive others are transparent that require more disclosure for example Asian usually in Japan they're more secretive the US and the UK they don't they don't have no problem having more disclosure and we talked about about why in prior session legal requirements for example if there is a violation of an accounting principle what type of penalties do you do you do you impose as the state involved as the court involved is the only the private accounting setting standard body and body involved you get slapped on the hand for example in some countries bribery is not is is not illegal in the US bribery is illegal so how do you how do you actually record a transaction if it's you know in the US that's illegal in another country it is legal how do you harmonize the practices so you could appreciate the the the differences in the difficulty also you might have different socioeconomic and political system for example what's the state role what's the legal system legal system it's a common law is a code law those are difficulties okay now most of the harmonization effort started with the IASC because that's the oldest organization quasi international organization it was established in 1973 by an agreement of the leading professional accounting bodies and 10 developed countries or 10 countries the US the UK the main countries it's it was its main objective was to issue international accounting standard okay and to do what to have harmonization to kind of have reduce the alternatives as much as possible and the life of the IASC can be broken down into three phases the first phase which is the first phase what they looked at is the lowest common denominator approach what they did they looked at the rules that are most common between all the different countries and they try to create those IAS international accounting standard IAS based on that lowest common denominator and that was from 1973 until 1988 considered the first phase of its life it issued 26 international accounting standard for example construction contract that's when they said well there are two acceptable methods hopefully you know what they are percentage of completion and the completed contract method for example all countries would either use the percentage of completion or the completed contract method those are the two acceptable method okay usually allowed multiple options so they did not really limit you to any particular option but they gave you the most common one but it produced little or no comparability of financial statements across the country so this was the start of this international effort but they issued 26 standard but those 26 standards did not really increase the comparability the second phase took place in the next five years from 1989 till 1993 and there was two major activities during those years the first one is they issued what's called the publication of framework for the preparation and presentation of financial statements also known as the framework so they issued the framework and in the framework they talked about the objective of financial statements why do we prepare financial statements the qualitative characteristics the definition of financial statement elements the definition of financial the criteria for recognition of financial statements now all these topics we're going to talk about when we talk about the IASV so we're going to look at them from an international perspective but this was the beginning of them 1989 1993 this is when they were published for the first time okay also what they wanted to do they wanted to start a comparability of financial statement project and what they did they reduce or eliminate certain choices for example if we go back to the percentage of completion and the completed contract method now what they did they put more restriction when you would use either or so they put little bit more rules to eliminate choices and to have more harmonization or more comparability the third stage or the final stage it was basically it's known as the international organization of securities commission agreement 1993 to 2001 this is when the IASC and the international securities commission the international organization of securities commission they tried to work together now you might be saying why well to solve the problem of cross-listing if one company if a US company wants to listen Europe or European company wants to listen the US what can we do to help them okay so they created a set of international standard endorsed by this organization this international securities organization for cross-listing purposes so they agreed on 30 core standard so they created a 30 core standard and in May 2014 of the largest developed countries developed countries accepted the 30 core standard to gain access to the country's capital market so as long as you use those standard you can cross-list and what happened after 2001 we have the creation of the international accounting standard board and we'll see later on shortly in the session what were the challenges for the IASC and in the next session we'll talk more about IASB which is the current board and this is the most important okay now was the IASC the only player in the harmonization effort of course now we already saw that the international organization of securities commission they were they were interested other other players were the international federation of accountant iFAC European Union was a major player international form on accountancy development and other players such as the UN and other international blocks let's talk about a little bit shortly about each of these players and talk about the difficulty of the challenges that that that that that face the IASC the international federation of accountancy it's a global organization of 158 member bodies associate in 123 countries they represent 2.5 million accountant employed in public practice industry commerce government and academia its mission is to serve the public interest and to strengthen the worldwide accountancy profession and to contribute to the development of strong international economies by establishing and promoting adherence to high high quality professional standard on on it auditing ethics education and training and obviously you can see that there could be a disagreement between this organization and the IASC and that's that's one of the reasons why the IASC was one of the reasons was dissolved because there was a disagreement with this organization and May 2000 IFAC and the large international accounting firm established a forum of firms also aim at raising standard of financial reporting and auditing globally in order to protect the interests of cross-border investors and promote international flow of capital okay so once again this is one of the organization that helped in this harmonization effort the second party that helped in this accounting harmonization effort is the European Union and obviously because the European Union is is is a geographical block and it's it's one of they have most of the developed countries so but bear in mind the European Union is changing especially in the past decade when they included former Soviet Union block countries so it's not as developed as as northern Europe or western Europe the aim of the EU is to create a unified business environment and obviously if you need to create a unified business environment accounting it's going to play a part of it so you want to create a unified accounting accounting rules two directives has been aimed at harmonizing accounting in the EU the fourth directive which is that's what they call them those decision issued in 1978 deals with valuation rules disclosure requirement and the format of the financial statement and the seventh directive issued in 1983 deals with consolidated financial statements so the fourth directive was a little bit more comprehensive it have comprehensive accounting rules covering the content of annual financial statement the presentation measurement disclosure of both public and private companies and fair value fair value measurement how do you measure something at fair value whether it's an asset or a liability okay so bear in mind that those rules provide consider considerable flexibility therefore it did not lead to complete comparability across member nations they tried their most but it did not it did not lead to that comparability but it helped reduce differences in financial statements so again even within the EU you have different cultures you have different countries so bear that in mind in 1995 the EU decided to adopt effort undertaken by the international accounting standard council toward broader international harmonization said no more accounting directives now we're going to go with this council whatever they decide which eventually became again the I which we're going to talk about later became IASB some of the challenges faced by the IASC over the years one one complaint was it lacked legitimacy because it was created by the accounting profession which was a private sector with its own self-interest it doesn't mean that's true but that's the perception for example the UN or constantly complain about this the IASC also faced problem of legitimacy with in regard to constituent support independence and technical expertise for example the board members worked at the the international standard setting were only part-time so they were not committed full-time which has showed a lack of commitment and they were not necessarily selected because of their technical expertise okay which that's that gave doubt to them they may not be they may not be developing the highest possible equality of accounting standard US reaction was also a major challenge in 1996 I believe FASB found differences in 74 percent of accounting standard what does that mean it means then when FASB did a study and they compare the the international accounting standard to the US GAAP what they found is it's not comparable at all there is a differences in 74 percent of accounting standard which is that's a huge difference that's not even close to comparability and there was some disagreement with the IFAC basically they disagreed who's the boss who should be issuing those international accounting standards so in response to these challenges and others and other challenges other than those what they did is they appointed a new committee appointed a committee called strategy working party in 1996 which end up with recommending changes that gave the birth to what we're going to be looking at next the international accounting standard board IASB which is IASB what's going to be starting to be showing the IFRS that we need to learn about in this course if you have any questions any comments about this about this recording please please email me otherwise study hard if you happen to visit my website for additional lectures please consider donating good luck


So this just happened That thing didn't look that big When it was up there Check it out the camera caught it


So the view recently aired an interview with a woman from South Carolina. This is not necessarily someone who is overtly political I wouldn't say that she's apolitical the way that I would describe her probably is semi-political like she explains in this clip that She's been a lifelong Republican because her family's Republican, but she doesn't necessarily Follow politics that closely although she did kind of follow politics a little bit more over the course of the election But she's going to explain how she got rubbed into QAnon as someone who you'd describe for lack of a better word as Anormy and what she says here is actually not too surprising, but it's still really important and interesting. I was unintentionally Getting conspiracy theories. I didn't know that it was QAnon. I didn't know any of that, but it started on tiktok I've been a lifelong Republican my family You know told me growing up were Republicans. They're great people. They're wonderful people. And so I was never one that was into politics anyways and I just always voted red. I wanted to be like my family and that's as much as I ever thought into it Obviously when the election campaign started I started liking on tiktok more Trump things and So I guess the algorithm must have Changed it to where I was seeing obviously more pro top pro Trump videos and then it led into conspiracy things They started talking about like the child ranks and that grabbed my attention since I'm a mom That's where it started. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting It's interesting. I mean I can see what you you could become a Trump supporter But you say that you were brainwashed into believing that Hollywood people where there was a ring of pedophiles and Including Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks who would you know kidnap these kids and then drink their blood I mean you must have watched Tom Hanks in the movies. I'm sure you've seen Oprah on television What made you believe such crazy nonsense? I Know it sounds crazy And so let me let me try to think of how I would explain this So when you start getting information from these these groups again, I had no idea The first place that it was QAnon It starts with something small. So child trafficking is real sex trafficking is real and it's a real problem So when I got just a little bit of information that you know, the government is doing bad things with these children it it wasn't starting off like These celebrities are Drinking these kids blood and I was like, yep, I'm gonna believe that it didn't start that way It was really small and you know, it it peaks your interest because as a mom I want to protect my kid I want to know everything and so I started diving in deeper I started asking people that I trusted about this information They would send me more information and it's snowballed to just build bigger and bigger and so eventually you get that huge crazy Bomb theory and you believe it, but it didn't start that way So this is actually really believable, you know, I I think that that makes sense You don't just go from point a to point Z like you don't start believing. Okay. I'm conservative I support Donald Trump Therefore there's just this giant ring of pedophiles within the Democratic Party who are worshiping the devil and eating human beings like You don't just make that large of a leap.  It's because she started watching tiktoks that were pro-trump so because she was already predisposed to Lean conservative at least culturally That's how she kind of went from point a to point B to point C But this makes me wonder like what about on the opposite side like if you're predisposed to be a Democrat do smaller stories Lead to radicalization just on the opposite side So for example like if you hear a story about someone who died because they couldn't afford their insulin Does that radicalize you to begin supporting Medicare for all more vociferously and vocally? I genuinely don't know like what I'm trying to find out is if there is a distinction between The fervor that these folks support conspiracy theories and political issues because there's a lot of support For policies like Medicare for all and you know the Green New Deal and everything that we support as leftists but is This zealotry that we see with conspiracy theories unique and I just like I'm really curious about the way That people fall so hard for this right is it as easy To radicalize someone into really fighting for Medicare for all as it is to dupe them into a conspiracy theory Like Cuban on and you know, I think that This is important to think about because if we want to de-radicalize these folks We have to learn how they became radicalized in the first place because in the same way that it took time for them To gradually become radicalized It's gonna take time I'd imagine to de-radicalize them. They're not just going to stop believing and snap out of it like that or most won't But we have to we have to try to bring these folks back to reality and turn them on To better policies and better politics. So I'm thinking about how if she was easily duped by you know The fact that sex trafficking is a real thing Therefore she kind of went down this Q and on rabbit hole Can we influence people to support policies like Medicare for all by sharing anecdotes?  Thank you Leading into an auguration day It had been going around in the groups that there would be a blackout Electricity might not work. There would be an emergency broadcasting alarm go off And so I prepared I I went and got groceries and filled my car up with gas and I Just waited for days for that alarm to go off and it never did So come inauguration day I Really didn't think it was gonna happen. I didn't sleep that night and I stayed glued to my phone I kept watching the TV watching the inauguration and when I saw Kamala Harris get sworn in I was like, okay they're cutting it really close and And then when President Biden was getting sworn in I Mean I just started to have tears and I was like I'm waiting. I'm waiting for the TV to turn off I'm waiting to hear this alarm and it didn't happen and I Was devastated after that. I was scared to death. I thought So my worst fear is in my worst nightmare is coming true and we're seeing the funeral of the country Nobody safe. We're all gonna die I need to take my kid out of school because they're gonna take her and There's just there's so much anxiety and fear It's hard to it's hard to explain that So I find this fascinating because she literally just like a month ago left the Q and on colt and She already sounds like a relatively normal well-adjusted person It's interesting the way that these folks so quickly go From being radicalized by QAnon and then just coming out of it. That's that's really fascinating to me And I do want to explore this and learn How their brains work, you know, does it take a certain person like do you have to be predisposed to think in a more conspiratorial way to fall that fast and You know, will certain people be deraticalized quicker like this is all fascinating to me one thing that stood out to me is she says that since the conspiracy theory was inextricably linked to Donald Trump and his cult of personality if He were to denounce QAnon or even just like shoot down some of the lies if he explicitly said QAnon is false.  It wouldn't have been, you know The saving thing for everyone in QAnon But a lot of them would have listened to Donald Trump and it's so weird to me that this group of conspiracy theorists they coalesced around Donald Trump because they believed that this man This individual who's been accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment by dozens of women who was friends with Jeffrey Epstein He's gonna be the individual who stops sex trafficking in the United States It just it doesn't make sense to me like there's still so much like we're learning more about QAnon How people are radicalized the impact that it has on them socially speaking But it's still like so much of it just doesn't make sense to me It just doesn't it's like, you know joining a pro-Bernie cult, but being against Medicare for all like Donald Trump is the worst possible person That I think would like will be reliable in cracking down on sex trafficking and sex crimes But he was like that was his number one issue and it was just a matter of time before he arrested everyone in DC It's a lot I'm still trying to digest all of the information that we've received I don't know how valuable this is like I believe this is important. I think we need to learn From these folks's experiences so we can like make sure we prevent others from being radicalized into these sorts of weird cults But still it's it's a really difficult thing to understand And I don't think that these like anecdotes from individual like former QAnon supporters are going to work like I actually want to see Clinical studies done because I think this is really the question of our time like conspiracy theories They're not going to go away. We saw an increase in anti-vax sentiment Since people online just seek out their own little like anti-vax clicks and whatnot So since this is going to be something that is prevalent for the foreseeable future How do we get people to think more critically? You know want a higher standard when it comes to evidence, you know, I just I don't know It's tricky. I don't know if there's an answer for us in the short term But long term I hope that we can learn from this and figure out a way to protect people From this sort of misinformation that is absolutely devastating and harmful to their own lives and to society at large


When the days are hot and you need a dessert and the last thing you wanna do is turn on the oven and heat up the kitchen, then it's the time to set up a make your own no-bake cheesecake bar. And I'll show you how easy it is. No heating up the kitchen necessary. First of all, I took eight ounces of cream cheese, softened cream cheese, put it in a bowl and I beat it up a little bit to get it a little bit creamy. Now I'm going to add some sweetener. Half cup of powdered sugar and I did sift it before I measured it and half teaspoon of vanilla. Put that in with the cream cheese and just beat it up until it's nice and smooth and creamy. If you have some pretty little saucers, this is a good time to bring them out and use them. But if not, just use a little dessert dish for each person. I also have a spoon for each person to use and you can demonstrate if you need to but I don't think they're going to need instructions.  You can use any fresh fruit of the season. Right now the berries are plentiful and delicious. So I'm using raspberries and blueberries and just put a few on top of that cheesecake filling and then all you need is some graham cracker crumbs over the top and there you've got your no-bake cheesecake. A yummy dessert, no oven required. I'm Sue Dodin sharing good food for Good Life 365.


All right, so let's get started making our cabinet counter here, so I'm going to call this cabinet counter video All right, so just drop down a geometry container there and I'm going to double click it to jump inside So what we want to focus on first is developing the kind of base floor plan for this particular prop So I'm just going to use a line for this one So we just draw a line and I'm going to set it in the x direction Right because I want my cabinet to face forward and Z when I bring it into Unity or unreal. All right, so with that all set up. Let me actually get rid of this previous window here All right with that set up. I'm going to drop down a match size node. This will allow me to center it up Easily, so I don't have to do any sort of expressions or anything like that Cool, so now I have control over the the width of our cabinet Counter prop here and then what I want to do is drop down a sweep node and We're going to utilize the ribbon surface shape This will basically allow me to define the depth So I'm just going to put one column there and this then becomes the depth of our prop Cool All right, so with that all set up. We pretty much have the base all set up So I'm just going to call this out base so we can get it and use it in object merge notes and I'm also going to drop down another null and we're going to call this controls I'm going to set up all the controls on this guy first Before we go in drag and drop them to the HDA All right, and then I'm going to hit C on the keyboard choose a different color and then Z and set a different shape Just so I can identify it quickly All right, so let's get a couple of controls set up here All right, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to go up here And we're going to open up the edit parameter interface for that particular Null mode and I'm going to set those default parameters to invisible and I want to set up two float values So one is going to be our base width So I'm just going to call this or the label is going to be width and this is going to be called base depth So the labeled name or the the actual visual label will be depth And then I want to put these on folders. It'll make it real easy to take all the parameters from this null node and Promote them up to the HDA And so for the folder name, I'm going to call this the base folder We'll just give it a label of base And I'm just going to set it to a simple for now. I might change it later on Cool. So with that done, I'm going to hit accept what I'm going to do here is just split my panel left and right and Then I'm just going to paint it that way I always have the controls available to me and I can quickly get to the parameter interface to add more Parameters to it as we develop our particular Setup here. And so now let's go and copy the width So I'm going to copy that parameter and that goes on to the line So I'm just going to paste that relative reference like so. Oh and our defaults need to be set up. So let's go back to our edit Parameter interface and so for the width I'm going to set this to a default of two meters So six feet and the depth Let's just start with one meter or three feet and apply and accept There we go. So now we have control on our control node here Which is going to control over our nodes in our particular graph here So on the sweep node Let's copy the depth over. So I'm going to copy that parameter and paste it Right into the width on our sweep node there. Yeah, I think I might actually do half Of that default width there, so let's do a point five That's a starting point. So these default values Are going to be the values that are used when you first drop the HD inside of unreal Cool. All right, so we're pretty much all set up and that's the base and now this is going to form the Structure for basically the entire prop We can build off of that, you know one quad there. So Let's keep moving forward in the next video


Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor, looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. Japan has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God. Bargo is far too great a security to American peace to permit its surrender with all the last-ditch fight. You people who oppose war and dictatorship do not be dismayed because the warmongers and the interventionists control most of the avenues of propaganda. At this critical moment in the world's history, when the democracies of Europe are facing the test of life or death, all Americans are of one mind. We want to resist the democracies in every way we can with materials and supplies. England is the last and only barrier between the United States and total war. Our aid must not come too late. Therefore, we must give President Roosevelt power to set in motion an industrial blitzkrieg that will make it possible for England to blast Hitlerism from the face of the earth. It was fully and clearly debate. Men were stamped interventionists and isolationists, and the debate grew better. Into this free debate tripped the agents of the aggressors, for they too were permitted to speak in our democracy. They wore Hitler's uniforms, but they wrapped themselves in the American flag. They preached the doctrine of racial and class hatred, for Hitler had said America could be conquered from within and fall as an overripe plum to the Nazi master race. How direct a combination? We let them speak. When occasionally a lone outrage dissenter wanted to wear his opposition, we provided police to preserve order. This was Madison Square Garden in New York City, and not Berlin, nor Nuremberg. Later, the speaker was arrested. It was the cause he had filched money from his deluded followers, and he was sent to sing-sing to brood upon the strange ways of democracy. America was at war. It had been at war, although few Americans realized it, for more than 10 years. Ever since September 18th, 1931, when Japan clawed Manchuria out of the body of China. While Hitler was still brawling in the streets of Munich, Japan had already begun weaving the pattern of aggression. Started with an incident. A Japanese train on the South Manchurian Railway had been dynamited. Promptly, Japanese battalions invaded Muckton. This was not mechanized warfare. By later standards, this war was primitive, small. Trivial, the Japanese cabinet officially labeled it when China protested to the League of Nations. Twelve Japanese planes bombed a Chinese city. Trivial. The League branded Japan an aggressor, and Japan resigned. Deeply hurt. Japan moved further into China. Pausing only for breath, Japan inflated the Muckton incident into the China incident. It was not war, the Japanese said. 400 million Chinese were caught up in this incident. China was looted and shelled and put to the torch. Chinese forces united under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek were pressed back by the invaders. China moved to armies in her Miga war industries far into the interior. The Chinese fought on not so much with weapons, as with space and time. And the warriors of Japan still breathing the spirit of the samurai in an era of machines adopted Western methods of warfare, as they had adopted Western clothes and architecture and music. And the Japanese warriors dreamt of a conquest of Asia and then of the world. And their emperor invoked the blessings of the divine upon this dream. Italy too had dreams of empire, so Italy too created an incident, in Ethiopia. Having achieved unity within by virtue of the club, castor oil and the concentration camp, Mussolini was ready. Two years after it had begun, the war was over. Italy had joined Japan in the partnership of aggression. I want to say hello to all the people of Japan. All Italians have founded an empire. March 13th, 1938, Hitler marched into Austria. The trinity of aggression was complete. For years, Hitler had planned and plotted. So Hitler marched into Austria. His conquest was bloodless. It was not entirely bloodless. German and Italian forces had been fighting in Spain. General Franco had revolted against the Republican government. He invited and received German and Italian aid. The duly elected government received some Russian aid. The democracies evolved a formula of non-intervention. The dictators brushed the society. Here was opportunity for a dress rehearsal for full-scale war. An excellent chance to test new weapons and tactics. The Spaniards were the guinea pigs. Men, women and children. It was a long war ended finally by hunger. Hitler was not content with Austria. At Munich he had said his theory of race and blood demanded the incorporation of all German-speaking peoples into the Reich. Hitler called upon Czechoslovakia to surrender the Sudetenland. That part of Czechoslovakia heavily populated by Germans. So Hitler, Prime Minister Chamberlain of Great Britain, Mussolini, Premier Dalladier of France, met in Munich. And because the democracies of Europe were hungry for peace, removed a thorn from Hitler's side. The Czech army and the little Maginot line. Hitler rolled into the Sudetenland. His people were jubilant. Hitler was the miracle man, they said. A man who conquered with words. This was a new kind of war. A delightful war. Bands and flowers and parade. Hitler told his people he was content. He wanted no more territory. He guaranteed the integrity of the mutilated Czechoslovak Republic. Upon the pause to rest and then marched into Prague, the republic was destroyed. The democracies had lost a valuable ally. On April 14, 1939, President Roosevelt appealed to Hitler and Mussolini for a 10-year guarantee of peace. And Hitler mocked as he called the role of his future victims. Poland, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia. The Reichstag roared. Hitler had signed a treaty of friendship with Poland. He had given Poland a slice of Czech territory. And now it was Poland's turn to ascend the sacrificial altar. Hitler didn't declare war. On September 1, 1939, he struck without warning, which is the way of the aggressor. You will soon see Hitler's own photographic record of the Blitz in Poland. The formula is simple enough. First, choose your victim. An army still living in the past. Few planes, fewer tanks, outmoded guns, and outmoded tactics. Choose an army relying upon courage rather than machines. Then, mass your bombers. Load with your biggest bomb. Boy, here's an adequate air force on the ground to escape out of the air. Strike again with your bombers. Wave after wave. It cannot move men and supply. Its arms are isolated against forces. Giant guns against sabers and rifles. Choose your time carefully, making sure the weather favors your machine. Strike at its city so that civilians will take to the roads, hampering the army, so that women and children will be killed in the streets, or in hastily contrived shelters. Strike again. Repeat the dose, day after day, and then add a drop of treachery in the form of fifth column. This was Warsaw. Repeat for 18 days. One Nazi pincer cuts the Polish corridor. Another races to Krakow. From East Prussia, another army moves on Warsaw. In circles, bombed, shelled and starved, Warsaw surrendered. Come over the roof of city, send your Luftwaffe sailing leisurely to photograph your handiwork, and on the ground, let the master race assemble the first of its slave populations. A stunned and shocked and hungry people whose sufferings do not end with the armistice, nor their resistance, waiting behind its marginal line, that vast underground fortress deemed impregnable by its military experts. Allied strategy relied upon starving the Reich into submission. Hitler's armies would collapse for lack of fuel and food and raw materials. Spring shattered this comfortable illusion. Norway and Denmark had staked their survival upon the strictest interpretation of neutrality to escape the war. Their sympathies were with the Allies, but they took extraordinary precautions to avoid offending Hitler. So on April 9th, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. Denmark was powerless to resist and didn't. Norway was stunned by an avalanche of force and treachery. Fifth columnists, led by major quisling and Norwegian traitors, spread panic and confusion. On May 9th, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. This pictorial record you are watching was made by Nazi cameraman of the order of Dr. Gettling, the German propaganda minister. He showed this botanarian symphony of devastation to neutral nations in Europe and South America to frighten them into surrender. You will observe that here in Holland, for example, not one German soldier is killed or wounded or even suffers a fractured ankle in an avalanche of distress. Using tanks, dive bombers, big guns, the Nazi machine brought the back of Dutch resistance in four days. It was Rotterdam, bombed after the Dutch forces had surrendered. The Nazis said there had been an attack. The news had not reached the Luftwaffe in time. And the next morning, reconnaissance planes flew over the city as they had flown over Warsaw, recording for the propaganda ministry another tribute to the efficacy of the Luftwaffe. While Rotterdam buried its dead, as Warsaw had, and former negotiations for surrender were duly completed. It took 18 days more to engulf the Belgians and drive the Anglo-French army into the sea. It was the Belgian cathedral city of Louvre, scarred in the First World War and restored anew, and again it fell victim to the invasion.