He gets into discussions with a cross-section of affluent Americans at the bar, including local television newscaster Vince Potter, beautiful young New York society woman Carla Sanford, a California industrialist, a rancher from Arizona, and a congressman.

While they all dislike communism and appreciate the material wealth they enjoy, they also want lower taxes and fail to see the need for industrial support of government.

The former is caught in the battle for San Francisco, the latter in the destruction of Boulder Dam by a nuclear missile which results in a tidal wave, flooding most of the country and killing a family attempting to flee from it.

Sanford, threatened with rape by an enemy soldier, narrowly escapes his assault as she jumps from the balcony, presumably to her death.

After reassuring themselves that the recent events, including their deaths, did not really happen, they hurry off to take measures to boost military preparedness.

The company consisted of Albert Zugsmith, Peter Miller, Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen with Joseph Justman as producer.

[1] "The Enemy" is never named but is clearly meant to be taken as the communist Soviet Union because of its approach through Alaska, pseudo-Slavic accents, and "People's Army" proclamations.

On a philosophical level, Invasion, U.S.A. is also often viewed as humorously (and unintentionally) ironic, as the lesson it communicates encourages citizens to subordinate their individual needs and desires to that of the state to combat communism.

O'Herlihy had the distinction of costarring in another Cold War drama climaxing with the nuclear destruction of New York, when he appeared in 1964's Fail Safe.

A contemporary review in Variety states: "This production imaginatively poses the situation of a foreign power invading the US with atom bombs.

Startling aspects of the screenplay [from a story by Robert Smith and Franz Spencer] are further parlayed through effective use of war footage secured from the various armed services and the Atomic Energy Commission.