Ninety years after the Ottoman massacres of Armenians, the argument over what to call them is still shaping foreign policy in Washington and Ankara. Correspondent Fergal Keane traces how Turkey's threats to withdraw American military bases pushed the US Congress to drop legislation that would have formally used the word genocide, and how both President Clinton and President George W. Bush walked back campaign promises to Armenian-American voters once in office. Keane interviews aging Armenian survivors describing the 1915 deportations and killings, sits down with Turkish officials who reject the genocide label outright, and talks to the American politicians caught between historical testimony and a NATO ally Washington needs for its plans in Iraq. The film lays out the diplomatic mechanics behind a word: how a single term of description became a bargaining chip tied to bases, alliances, and votes. It closes on the unresolved standoff, decades of survivor accounts on one side, a government's strategic calculations on the other, with no recognition granted.