"The ray After": A Critique

Rep. Henry J. Hyde

The 1'..BC film, "The Day J..fter," will leave in the minds of many vie¼~rs

glaring irrages of nuclear holocaust. The film does indeed have a riolitical

rressage; it consciously drarratizes a feelins of despair. In one example of

rr.any, ~ see a shot of bodies spread over the rese of a war rrerrorial. 7he film says

patriotism and defense of our freedom in the nuc lear age lead only to dea t h;

hunartity stands helpless before the nuclear rronster .

Actually, viewers can draw other, qui t e different , lessons from the film.

~e first is that, with our NATI) allies , the U.S. ought to strengthen substantially

its conventional forces in Europe. Vie~rs will recall that in the filrr. the

Soviets invade i·;est Cermany and , to halt the invasion, l~.TO explode s three

nuclear 'v~J;X)ns over their advancing forces. Escalation follows , culminat ing

in a nuclear exchanoe betv..'een the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Had NATO's conventional

forces been stronger, they \-.Ould have been able to repel the Soviet invasi on without

resort to nuclear v,;eapons. Indeed, their strength might have deterred the Soviets

from even launching the invasion.

Thus, a concrete step to reduce the chance of nuclear war 'v.Duld be to expand

our conventional forces . As these are considerably nore expensive than nuclear

~a!X)ns, expansion would require a subst antial increa se in the defense bBd?et.

Ar9Uably, it also could require a return of the draft.

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Hyde - Day After

Seex>nd, many of the people ¼B see incinerated, crushed or irradiated

in the attack , or dying slO¼Br deaths afterward fran radiation sicJc..ness ,

'WOU.ld have been spared had they been afforded the protection of a civil defense

system . Many of their Soviet counterparts v.ould have s urvived thanks to their

countl.y' s Iressive civil defense program. Ours is exceedingly mxlest by

crnparison . I.ast year~ spent $147 n,illion on civil defense; the Soviets

$3 billion, acx;ording to the CL\. Thus, a second concrete lesson of the filr.1 is

to expand -civil defense .

Thi rd, the Soviet missiles targeted on eastern Kansas rrie;ht sare day be

destroyed before they can reach their targets by missile defense systems .

President :Reagan addressed this matter in his nationally televised speech last

March 23, when he called for a long-tenn program to devel op defensive systems

that ¼Duld end our reliance on the threat of mutual destruction to prevent

nuclear war. The film recounts the bre akdown of the mutual U. S . -t:'.S.S.R .

hostage relationship , whose dangers the President explained in his speech. Thus,

a third concr(:!_te lesson is to expand research into missile defense svstems.

Of course , the freeze ITDven-ent , the pacifists and unilateral disanrers

will draw other conclusions fran "The f\3.y After. " Mone will be heard advocatincr

increased spending on ronventional forces (the de fense budget has to be cut so

'iM:! can spend rrore on social programs ) ; or the return of the draft; or c ivil defense

(it's provocative, they say, ignoring the massive Soviet effort) ; or research

into missile defense (they r idiculed the Presi dent's address a s his "Star i·1ars"

speech}.-

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Hyde - cay After

Instead, they will press the nuclea r freeze with renewed vigor. But

the freeze "-Duld still leave both sides with the nuclear missiles we see used

in the film, and it \t.Duld give tre Sovi ets no incentive to reduce the number o f

their rramroth missiles, two of which we see exnloding in eastern Kansas. Nor

v.Duld the freeze solve the division of Europe, which precipitated the conflict,

or change the imbalance of conventional forces there .

Television, we all knew, is a rredium best suited to conveying errotions.

"The Day 1-fter" drarratizes the horror of nucle ar holocaust; but the prohlem

of preventing one is rrore subtle and, in the view of the networks, not best

handled ·in priITe tine. (When was their last everdng docurrentar:y on the subject?

And why do they banish discussion of the subject: to the hours after ll:30p.m. ?)

Nuclear weapons do not threaten peace; the political conflict bet~n the U.S.

and Russia, centered in Ew:Dpe, does. What is responsible for thi s conflict,

and how does the de spotic nature of the Soviet regine contribute to it? 'Ihe

f i lm, by ignoring the underlying military and political issues, gives viewers

only one s ide of the story: The fear side. It encourages nany, like those in

the freeze moverrent, to l(X)k for panaceas that a lso ic::nore the fundarrental issue s.

Such panaceas actually increase the danger of war and inpede the prospects for

anns contxol.

"The Day After" inevitably will have a one-sided effect by weakening the

resolve of so.Te segrrents of Western opinion. It ends with a rather disingenous

title expressing the hope ·that it "will inspire the nations of this earth, their

peoples and leaders, to find the rreans to avert the fateful day. " "The Day l\fte r"

certainly will inspire the so-called ''peace" rroverrent to wallc:w further in

despair; whether it will bring any inspiration to the K..v-eml in is I!Dre doubtful .

end.
U.S. :Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Republican of Illinois , i s a rrember of the House Forei~
Affairs c~---- c.-·G>€ and was a leadinc:; opponent of the nuclear f r eeze i n the Ha.1se .