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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 23, 1983
ON THE WORLD SCENE
MISSILES, REAL AND MYTHICAL On November 22 the West German parliament, by
286 votes to 226, reaffirmed that nation's commitment to deploy NATO's new
intermediate-range nuclear weapons, the Pershing II and cruise missiles.
This was done in the face of near total rejection of the NATO plan on the
part of the opposition Social Democratic Party. The SPD has veered sharply
to the left since 1979 when it, as the party in power, initially approved
the scheme. In fact, former SPD chancellor Helmut Schmidt was one of its
greatest promoters while in office, believing the new missiles would more
firmly "couple" Europe's defense to America's strategic arsenal. How times
have changed.
Moscow reacted sharply to the decision in Bonn. For West Germany, it said,
"the Rubicon has been crossed," and that it had succumbed to "overseas nu
clear fanatics" (the Reagan administration} who only want to turn the
country into a launch pad for more missiles targeted on the Soviet Union.
The first of the controversial Pershing II rockets should be on West German
soil shortly. Their deployment awaited only the positive Bundestag vote.
And in America the same weapon figured, in the background at least, in the
long-awaited (and highly promoted) ABC television movie, "The Day After."
The 2�-hour long film about nuclear destruction in Kansas drew an audience
of over 80 million Americans in an estimated 38 million homes. Afterwards,
a large portion of the audience remained tuned in to watch a panel of
experts discuss the merits of the film and the nuclear peril in general.
The producers had a specific political point to make, and hoped that the
audience, scared by the simulated horror of a nuclear attack, would adopt
their view: that deterrence is outmoded and that only a nuclear freeze, or
something akin to it, offers hope. In the film, the implication is made,
via background TV and radio news bulletins, that it was the deployment of
U.S.-made Pershing II missiles in Europe which began the fateful chain of
events. Here is how David S. Broder, in his column in the November 16, 1983
LOS ANGELES TIMES analyzed the intended purpose of "The Day After," and
similar TV programs or motion pictures:
Dramatizations of the tragic consequences of nuclear war can be
seen at the movie theaters in the film "Testament" and on the
home screen Sunday night with the much-publicized "The Day
After."
All this is designed to produce a spasm of revulsion
among AmerTcans at the consequences of nuclear war. �t will al
most certainly have�at effect. comlng at the°""'start of a pre
sidential campaign in which the Democratic challengers have been
steadily increasing the rhetoric of their commitment to "end the
nuclear arms race," the effect on policy decisions--both here and
in Moscow--cannot be exaggeratea.
So it behooves us to think clearly and calmly about the most im
portant issue in the world. The potential of death and destruc
tion on an unprecedented, almost unimaginable, scale has been
there since we and the Soviets exploded our first nuclear
weapons.
That is why U.S. Presidents of both parties, over a
period of more than 30 years, have accepted as an imperative both
the maintenance of the nuclear deterrent and the pursuit of nu-