As a result of General George S. Patton's (George C. Scott) decision to use former Nazis to help reconstruct post-World War II Germany (and publicly defending the practice), General of the Army (United States) Dwight Eisenhower (Richard Dysart) removes him from that task and reassigns him to supervise Fifteenth United States Army whose task is to write the Military history of the United States during World War II in World War II.