1
The Reagan Era, Part I
Week 8--Film: The Day After
Terms:
Ronald Reagan Carl Sagan
Neo-Conservative TTAPS
Team B The Day After
Richard Pipes Richard Perle
Irving Krystol Nuclear Freeze
Evil Empire Reaganomics
Strategic Defensive Initiative KAL 007
Able Archer ’83 Nuclear Winter
Casper Weinberger Mikhail Gorbachev
Committee on the Present Danger Afghanistan
Questions to consider:
Which idea seemed more plausible: Nuclear Winter or SDI?
Why?
What were some events/themes/ideas/people that supported
the resurgence of Conservatism in the 1980s?
Why does 1983 mark a new high-point in atomic anxiety?
Nena – 99 Luftballoons (translated from
German)
Do you have some time for me? Then
I’ll sing a song for you; About 99
Balloons, on their way to the horizon;
Are you perhaps thinking of me? Then
I’ll sing a song for you; About 99
Balloons; And that something like war
comes from such a thing
99 Balloons on their way to the horizon;
They thought they were UFOs from
Space; So a general sent a flying squad
out there; To raise the alarm if it was
true
Yet on the horizon were on 99 Balloons;
99 Jet planes, each one was a great
warrior ; Thought that they were Captain
Kirk, there were great fireworks
The neighborhood had failed to
understand; and they felt harassed; still
they shot on the horizon, 99 Balloons
99 Ministers of War, Matches and Gas
Cans, Thought they were clever people;
Caught up in glory of war; Shouted
“WAR” and sought power; Man!, who
would have thought? That one day it
would come to this from 99 Balloons?
99 years of war; there are no victors;
there are no ministers of war left; and
no jet planes either; today I’m doing my
rounds; seeing the world in ruins; found
a balloon and thought of you, and let it
fly
The Day After: Political Fallout
“One can think of no
other subject from foreign
policy to the economy
that a network would dare
to present in such a one
dimensional manner.”
-Jerry Fallwell
The film had a clear goal:
“removing tactical nuclear
missiles from the European
theater.”
- Vin Webb (R-CO)
“Let’s reject the vision of The
Day After. Let’s reject it!
Let’s reject it for us and let’s
reject its despair and doom
and gloom for our children.”
-Preacher, Lawrence, KS
One parent advised his
children not to worry, that
regarding nuclear war:
“Adults are working on
that. You don’t need to
worry about that.”
- Parent, Lawrence KS
The film was nothing
more than a “two and a
half hour commercial for
the Kremlin, and they
didn’t even have to put
KGB actors in it.”
- Anonymous
