AllMovie

The terrorist attacks against America on September 11, 2001, may have been the most devastating, but they were not the first. The United States first suffered at the hands of Islamic militants 22 years ago, when U.S. embassy employees in Iran were taken captive and held hostage for more than a year. Other incidents over the decades include the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, the killing of American soldiers in a Berlin nightclub, the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, and the first attack on the World Trade Center. The nation's top leaders who met in the days following September 11 to decide how the U.S. would respond were not the first to be faced with such a decision. Frontline examines the decades-long division among U.S. security forces about how to deal with an enemy whose number-one target has been America and Americans.