Why We Fight is a series of seven propaganda films produced by the US Department of War from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. It was originally written for American soldiers to help them understand why the United States was involved in the war, but US President Franklin Roosevelt ordered distribution for public viewing. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Frank Capra, daunted but impressed and challenged by Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 propaganda film Triumph of the Will, worked in direct response. The series faced various challenges, such as convincing a noninterventionist nation to get involved in the war and to become an ally of the Soviet Union. Many entries feature Axis powers' propaganda footage from up to 20 years earlier, recontextualized to promote the Allies. Although primarily edited by William Hornbeck, some parts were re-enacted "under War Department supervision" if no relevant footage was available. Animated segments were produced by Walt Disney Productions, and the animated maps followed a convention of depicting Axis-occupied territory in black. Purpose After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and America's subsequent joining World War II, American film director Frank Capra enlisted with the armed forces. He was already an established Hollywood director responsible for directing films winning Academy Award such as It Happened One Night (1934) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He was assigned to work directly under George Marshall, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Marshall felt that the Signal Corps, an army branch responsible for communications, was incapable of producing "sensitive and objective troop information films". One colonel explained the importance of these future films to Capra: During his first meeting with Marshall, Capra received his mission: Countering enemy propaganda films Shortly after his meeting with General Marshall, Capra viewed Leni Riefenstahl's "terrifying motion picture", Triumph of the Will. Capra describes the film as "the ominous prelude of Hitler's holocaust of hate. Satan couldn't have devised a more blood-chilling super-spectacle. ... Though panoplied with all the pomp and mystical trappings of a Wagnerian opera, its message was as blunt and brutal as a lead pipe: We, the Herrenvolk, are the new invincible gods!" According to Capra, Triumph of the Will "fired no gun, dropped no bombs. But as a psychological weapon aimed at destroying the will to resist, it was just as lethal." Capra still had no assistants or facilities, and he began to see his