25 Years After "The Day After"

(From the Janesville Messenger, 12-7-08)

No marigolds in the promised land
There's a hole in the ground
Where they used to grow
Any man left on the Rio Grande
Is the king of the world
As far as I know
- Steely Dan, “King of The World”


I had never really listened to the lyrics to that song before, but after hearing it again recently, I realized that it was about being alive after a nuclear holocaust.
Immediately, I began thinking about the controversial TV movie “The Day After,” which contained the first graphic depiction of a nuclear strike on the USA that had ever aired on American television. I hadn’t thought about that film, or the threat of nuclear war, in years.
In a case of bizarre karma, later that evening a friend of mine sent me an e-mail entitled, “This aired 25 years ago today.” It contained links to video clips of “The Day After.”
It was hard to believe that it was only 25 years ago that the specter of nuclear war hung over us. These days, it almost seems like a dream.
US-Soviet relations were perhaps at an all-time low in 1983. President Reagan referred to the Soviets as “The Evil Empire.” The Soviets walked out of arms talks in Geneva, Switzerland over NATO plans to deploy Pershing II missiles in Europe. President Reagan announced his “Star Wars” defense initiative, which the Soviets believed to be offensive, not defensive. The Soviets shot down a Korean passenger jet that accidentally flew over their airspace, killing all 269 people aboard. The US invaded Grenada to overthrow a fledgling Communist government. And then, “The Day After” spooked the 100 million of us who watched.
If those events made us jittery, imagine if we had known that during that same general time frame, the fall of 1983, World War III nearly began – twice. First, in September, a Soviet early warning satellite incorrectly reported that five nuclear missiles had been launched toward the USSR. The Soviet strategy in such a case was an immediate nuclear counterattack. But the commander on duty, Stanislav Petrov, correctly guessed that it was a false alarm, based on his training that a US attack would likely involve hundreds of missiles. His hunch and deviation from Soviet doctrine, unknown to the outside world until 1998, saved the planet.
Then in November, a NATO military exercise in Europe called Operation Able Archer had the increasingly paranoid Soviets convinced that it was a front for a surprise nuclear attack. The Soviets were so sure this was the case that they had their military on full alert. Only when the exercise was over did the Soviets calm down, and did the US and NATO discover – thanks to a spy - how close to war they had come.
But even if we didn’t know now about those two near-catastrophes, just thinking back to what we did know gives me a shudder. The possibility of Armageddon was always looming in the background. Even watching MTV, which I was doing a lot in 1983, one could see mushroom clouds in videos ranging from David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” to Nena’s “99 Luftballons.”
“The Day After” wasn’t even the scariest movie about nuclear war that came out of that era. In 1984, a British film called “Threads” was released, which was very similar in plot to “The Day After,” but about an attack on Sheffield, England rather than Lawrence, Kansas. “Threads” was twice as frightening, probably because it was much more graphic than “The Day After,” and depicted a considerably bleaker post-nuclear future. Frankly, I don’t remember nearly as much about “The Day After” as I do about “Threads.” To this day, recalling the scenes of the latter film creeps me out.
The world has changed. My kids can’t even begin to imagine growing up in a world where you feared that nuclear war could become a reality. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were terrifying to them, but the threat of having your entire world vaporized in a minute can’t begin to compare. It’s impossible for them to relate to.
But for those of us that remember, it makes the current state of the economy seem like a trifle.