World War III in popular culture

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World War III is a common theme in popular culture. Since the 1940s, countless books, films,
and television programmes have used the theme of nuclear weapons and a third global war.[1] The
presence of the Soviet Union as an international rival armed with nuclear weapons created a
persistent fear in the United States. There was a pervasive dread of a nuclear World War III, and
popular culture reveals the fears of the public at the time.[2] This theme in the arts was also a way
of exploring a range of issues far beyond nuclear war.[3] The historian Spencer R. Weart called
nuclear weapons a "symbol for the worst of modernity."[1]

During the Cold War, concepts such as mutual assured destruction (MAD) led lawmakers and
government officials in both the United States and the Soviet Union to avoid entering a nuclear
World War III that could have had catastrophic consequences on the entire world.[4] Various
scientists and authors, such as Carl Sagan, predicted massive, possibly life ending destruction of
the earth as the result of such a conflict.[citation needed] Strategic analysts assert that nuclear weapons
prevented the United States and the Soviet Union from fighting World War III with conventional
weapons.[5] Nevertheless, the possibility of such a war became the basis for speculative fiction,
and its simulation in books, films and video games became a way to explore the issues of a war
that has thus far not occurred in reality.[4] The only places a global nuclear war have ever been
fought are in expert scenarios, theoretical models, war games, and the art, film, and literature of
the nuclear age.[6] The concept of mutually assured destruction was also the focus of numerous
movies and films.[4]

Prescient stories about nuclear war were written before the invention of the atomic bomb. The
most notable of these is The World Set Free, written by H. G. Wells in 1914. During World War
II, several nuclear war stories were published in science fiction magazines such as Astounding.[6]
In Robert A. Heinlein's story "Solution Unsatisfactory" the US develops radioactive dust as the
ultimate weapon of war and uses it to destroy Berlin in 1945 and end the war with Germany. The
Soviet Union then develops the same weapon independently, and war between it and the US
follows.[citation needed] The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 made stories of a future
global nuclear war look less like fiction and more like prophecy.[6] When William Faulkner
received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949, he spoke about Cold War themes in art. He
worried that younger writers were too preoccupied with the question of "When will I be blown
up?"[7]

Contents
[hide]
  1 1940s: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 2 1950s: Fears of the new and unknown
 3 1960s: Expanding popularity
 4 1970s: Fears continue
 5 1980s: Belief in an imminent threat
 6 1990s: Fears subside
 7 2000s: Concern over terrorism
 8 See also
 9 References
 10 External links

[edit] 1940s: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ushered in the "atomic age", and the bleak
pictures of the bombed-out cities released shortly after the end of World War II became symbols
of the power of the new weapons.

[edit] 1950s: Fears of the new and unknown

1952 comic book cover, stories speculating on 1960 events

American fears of an impending apocalyptic World War III with the communist bloc were
strengthened by the quick succession of the Soviet Union’s nuclear bomb test, the Chinese
Communist Revolution in 1949, and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. Pundits named
the era "the age of anxiety", after W. H. Auden.[2] In 1951 an entire issue of Collier's magazine
was devoted to a fictional account of World War III. The issue was entitled "Preview of the War
We Do Not Want". In the magazine, war begins when the Red Army invades Yugoslavia and the
United States responds by conducting a three month long bombing campaign of Soviet Union
military and industrial targets. The Soviet Union retaliates by bombing New York City,
Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Detroit.[8]

Against this background of dread there was an outpouring of cinema with frightening themes,
particularly in the science fiction genre. Science fiction had previously not been popular with
either critics or movie audiences, but it became a viable Hollywood genre during the Cold War.
In the 1950s science fiction had two main themes: the invasion of the Earth (symbolising the US)
by superior, aggressive, and frequently technologically advanced aliens; and the dread of atomic
weapons, which was typically portrayed as a revolt of nature, with irradiated monsters attacking
and ravaging entire cities.[2]

In The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), a flying saucer lands on the Mall in Washington DC,
where it is surrounded by troops and tanks. The alien Klaatu delivers an ultimatum that the Earth
must learn to live in peace or it will be destroyed. The War of the Worlds (1953) has a montage
sequence where the countries of Earth join together to fight the Martian invaders. The montage
conspicuously omits the Soviet Union, implying that the aliens are a metaphor for communists.
The most elaborate science fiction films in the 1950s were This Island Earth (1955) and
Forbidden Planet (1956). In the climax of both films the characters witness the explosion of
alien planets, implying Earth's possible fate.[2] The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) is also
in the science fiction genre. In it, a man, a woman, and a bigot (the devil) roam New York City
after a nuclear war. Only those three characters appear in the film. Also released in 1959 was On
the Beach, directed by Stanley Kramer and starring Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck and Fred
Astaire. Based on the successful novel by Nevil Shute, the film deals with the citizens of
Australia as they await radioactive fallout, a result of a catastrophic nuclear war in the Northern
Hemisphere. The French author Stefan Wul's 1957 novel Niourk provided a portrait of New
York after World War III.[9]

[edit] 1960s: Expanding popularity

In the 1960s, media about the threat of nuclear world war gained wide popularity. According to
Susan Sontag, these films struck people’s "imagination of disaster...in the fantasy of living
through one’s own death and more the death of cities, the destruction of humanity itself."[10] A
leading member of the 1960s anti-war movement, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan evoked the topic
of WWIII thrice in his seminal The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, in "Masters of War", "Talkin'
World War III Blues", and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall".

In 1964 three films about the threat of accidental nuclear war were released, Dr. Strangelove,
Fail-Safe, and Seven Days in May. Their negative portrayal of nuclear defence prompted the
United States Air Force to sponsor films such as A Gathering of Eagles to publicly address the
potential dangers of nuclear defense.[6]

Dr. Strangelove is a black comedy by Stanley Kubrick about the nuclear arms race between the
US and the Soviet Union and the doctrine of mutually assured destruction.[5] Following a bizarre
mental breakdown the C.O. of a SAC base orders the B-52 wing operating from his base to
attack the Soviet Union. The title character, Dr. Strangelove, is a parody of a composite of Cold
War figures, including Wernher von Braun, Henry Kissinger, and Herman Kahn. The secret code
Operation DROPKICK, mentioned by George C. Scott's character, may be an oblique reference
to Operation Dropshot.

The 1964 film Fail-Safe was adapted from a best-selling novel of the same name by Eugene
Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. In it, nuclear disaster is caused by a technological breakdown that
mistakenly launches American bombers to attack the Soviet Union. In order to prove the mistake
and placate the Soviets, thereby saving the world from nuclear war, the US President orders the
destruction of New York after a US bomber succeeds in destroying Moscow. The film was made
in a semi-documentary style with a montage of the destruction of Moscow and New York at the
end of the film.[10]

The War Game (1965), produced by Peter Watkins, deals with a fictional nuclear attack on
Britain. This film won the Oscar for Best Documentary, but was withheld from broadcast by the
BBC for two decades.[11] The 1968 Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,
adapted to film in 1982 as Blade Runner, features as its setting an Earth having been damaged
greatly by the radioactive fallout of a nuclear war termed "World War Terminus."

[edit] 1970s: Fears continue

The American public's concerns about nuclear weapons and related technology continued to be
present in the 1970s. The most talked about events in the 1970s were the Vietnam War, the
Watergate scandal, the Iran hostage crisis, the energy crisis, and stagflation. None of these issues
easily lent themselves to apocalyptic scenarios.[3] In the 1977 Robert Aldrich film Twilight's Last
Gleaming, a nuclear missile silo is seized by renegade US Air Force officers, who threaten to
start World War III if the American government does not reveal secret documents that show that
the military needlessly prolonged the Vietnam War.[12]

[edit] 1980s: Belief in an imminent threat

In the early 1980s there was a feeling of alarm in Europe and North America that a nuclear
World War III was imminent. In 1982, 250,000 people protested against nuclear weapons in
Bonn, then the capital of West Germany.[13] On June 12, 1982, more than 750,000 protesters
marched from the U.N. headquarters building to Central Park in New York to call for a Nuclear
Freeze.[14] The public accepted the technological certainty of nuclear war, but did not have faith
in nuclear defence.[6] Tensions came to a head with the NATO exercise Able Archer 83, which,
combined with other events such as President Reagan's "Evil Empire" speech and the
deployment of the Pershing II missile in Western Europe, as well as the erroneous Soviet shoot-
down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, had the Soviets frantically convinced that the West was
about to launch an all-out war against the USSR.
These fears were manifested in the popular culture of the time, with images of nuclear war in
books, film, music, and television. In the mid 1980s artists and musicians drew parallels with
their time and the 1950s as two key moments in the Cold War.[7]

There was a steady stream of popular music with apocalyptic themes. The 1983 hit "99
Luftballons" by Nena tells the story of a young woman who accidentally triggers a nuclear
holocaust by releasing balloons. The music video for "Sleeping with the Enemy" had images of
the Red Army parading in Red Square, American high school marching bands, and a mushroom
cloud. The 1984 hit "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood had actors resembling
Konstantin Chernenko and Ronald Reagan fighting each other amidst a group of cheering
people. At the end of their fight, the Earth explodes.[13] Sting's 1986 song "Russians" highlighted
links between Nikita Khrushchev's threats to bury the US and Reagan's promise to protect US
citizens.[7] Many punk, hardcore and crossover thrash bands of the era, such as The Varukers and
Discharge, had lyrics concerning nuclear war, the end of mankind and the destruction of the
Earth in much of their early material.

Films and television programmes made in the 1980s had different visions of what World War III
would be like.[7] Red Dawn (1984) portrayed a World War III that begins unexpectedly, with a
surprise Soviet and Cuban invasion of the United States. A small band of teenagers fight the
Soviet and Cuban occupation using guerrilla tactics.[4] In the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy,
James Bond tries to stop World War III from being started by a renegade Soviet general.[13]

In the early 1980s there were a number of films made for television that had World War III as a
theme. ABC's The Day After (1983), PBS's Testament (1983), and the BBC's Threads (1984)
depicted nuclear World War III. The three movies show a nuclear war against the Soviet Union,
which sends its troops marching across Western Europe. These films inspired many to join the
anti-nuclear movement.[6] Threads is notable for its graphically disturbing and realistic depictions
of post-nuclear survival.[citation needed]

The Day After was shown on ABC on November 20, 1983, at a time when Soviet-US relations
were at rock bottom, just weeks after the provocative NATO-led Able Archer 83 exercises, and
less than three months after Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by Soviet jet
interceptors. ABC warned its audience about the graphic nature of the film. The Day After
became a political event in itself and was shown in over forty countries.[13] The shocking and
disturbing content discouraged advertisers, but had the largest audience for a made-for-TV
movie up to that time[15] (a record which still stands as of 2008)[citation needed] and influenced the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty negotiations in 1986.[15]

The 1982 NBC miniseries World War III, directed by David Greene, received little critical
attention.[3] In the programme, a Soviet Spetznaz (Special Forces) invasion of Alaska in order to
destroy the Alaska oil pipeline escalates to a full scale war. The miniseries abruptly ends with the
President releasing US nuclear forces against the Soviets. This narrative is almost unique
because the film ends moments before the world is annihilated with nuclear weapons. Similar
stories about the destruction of the world showed the possibility of the world's rebirth following
global destruction.[3]
During the 1980s, the techno-thriller became a literary phenomenon in the United States. These
novels about high-tech non-nuclear warfare reasserted the value of conventional weapons by
showing how they would be vital in the world's next large scale conflict.[6] Tom Clancy's novels
proposed the idea of a technical challenge to the Soviet Union, where World War III could be
won using only conventional weapons, without resorting to nuclear weapons. Clancy’s detailed
explanation of how and why World War III could begin involves oil shortages in the Soviet
Union caused by Islamic terrorism within it. The Hunt for Red October (1984) hypothesized that
the Soviet Union’s technology would soon be better than the Americans'. Red Storm Rising was
a detailed account of the coming world war.[4] Soon after the Cold War ended techno-thriller
novels changed from stories about fighting the Soviet Union to narratives about fighting
terrorists.[6]

Watchmen reflects the fears of the 1980s of inevitable nuclear war

Comics also began to address the issue of World War III with the implications of super-powered
beings as metaphors for nuclear weapons. Marvel Comics gathered many of their Russian super-
hero and villain characters into a new group, called "The Soviet Super-Soldiers" which answered
directly to the Soviet Government. They also addressed the issue of Russian born mutants, in X-
Factor Annual #1, with a story that revealed that all Soviet born mutants were forcibly drafted
upon discovery, to serve as covert assassins for the Soviet government.

The most notable story Marvel story, addressing the issue of World War III was in Uncanny X-
Men #150. In it, the villain Magneto once again threatens the world, with the threat of using his
newly increased magnetic powers to cause unspeakable destruction across the globe unless all of
the governments of the world cede control over the planet to him. Magneto, when confronted by
the X-Men, defends his murderous actions (which includes destroying an entire Russian city and
sinking a Soviet nuclear submarine) by stating that if he not take over the world then and there,
that mutantkind would be destroyed along with mankind in the event of a nuclear war.

Meanwhile DC began to explore, in the pages of its various black-ops themed comics, similar
ideas as they introduced various Soviet backed super-powered beings. These appeared in the
pages of Suicide Squad, Firestorm the Nuclear Man, Captain Atom, and Checkmate.

The most notably characters introduced were the armored suit wearing soldiers "The Rocket
Reds", a special platoon of armored wearing Russian soldiers who were introduced in the pages
of "The Green Lantern Corps" in Green Lantern #206.
World War III was also a major theme for the first year of the 1987 Justice League, as the Justice
League went from an apolitical organization to being backed by the United Nations as their chief
global protectors. The move was made by the team's new fiancier, Maxwell Lord, who saw the
League as the best option for the world as a global, UN sponsored super-hero team would be able
to prevent potential crisises that could lead to World War III if not stopped.

While mainstream DC Comics offered an optimistic look at World War III, other comics were
more cynical. "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" portrayed World War III erupting over the
issue of a small Latin American country, with the Soviet Union effectively "winning" the war
overnight by using a specially designed weapon called a "Coldbringer"; the Coldbringer
produces a massive electromagnetic pulse designed to shut down all technology and cover the
sky with soot and dust, effectively condemning all of America to nuclear winter but without the
mass murdering side-effects of radiation. The mini-series also featured Superman being
portrayed as a government agent, working as a one-man army for the US Government. Unlike
Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan however, Superman is shown to be conflicted with his job as a
government agent and still refuses to take human lives (something Dr. Manhattan had no
problems with).

The best selling and acclaimed mini-series turned graphic novel Watchmen takes place in an
alternate 1985 where superheros exist and where Nixon is still President. In the story, Dr.
Manhattan, an omnipotent super-hero created in a lab accident in the 1960s, has become
America's chief "weapon" and defender in their war against the Soviet Union and his
disappearance (manipulated by his fellow super-hero Adrian Veidt) has caused relations between
the Soviet Union and America, already on tense terms, to explode as the Soviets begin exploiting
Manhattan's disappearance, causing the United States to stand ready to begin nuclear war with
the Soviets. The series itself also takes a nhillistic view of super-heroes "solving" the issue of
how to prevent World War III: in the end, the brilliant genius Veidt decides that the only way to
save the world is to create a new threat that would be powerful enough to scare humanity into
uniting for its own self-preservation. To this end, Veidt has spent over a decade building a
genetically engineered monster which he teleports into New York City, killing millions yet
succeeding in uniting America and the Soviets together. Though his scheme is discovered by his
fellow heroes, they ultimately opt to keep silent, lest the world reume the path to destruction.

When the Wind Blows, a graphic novel by Raymond Briggs, was published in 1982. The novel is
a bitter satire on the advice given by the British government about how to survive a nuclear war,
[16]
where a working-class couple that do not believe that nuclear war is possible die of radiation
sickness after a nuclear explosion. It reflects Briggs’ participation in the British Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament.[17] Briggs is best known as a writer and illustrator of children’s literature,
but this novel was written for an older audience[16] and is his bleakest work. The novel’s message
greatly affected young adult readers. Briggs rewrote the novel for radio, stage,[17] and an
animated film that was released in 1986.[18]

[edit] 1990s: Fears subside

The Cold War ended without the destructive final global war that had often been envisioned in
popular culture,[13] and the public's fears of World War III were allayed. On the other hand, the
previously classified Stanislav Petrov incident of 1983 seemed to imply that the risk of
accidental nuclear war due to technical malfunction had been greater than previously anticipated.
The theme of nuclear armageddon launched by military artificial intelligence computer systems
without human decision was explored in the 1991 blockbuster movie Terminator 2: Judgment
Day as well as in the 1983 film WarGames. During the early 90s and the Gulf Crisis, tabloid
papers and other press discussed whether World War III would be linked to prophecies of
Nostradamus concerning a third great war.[19]

People now enjoyed movies about nuclear weapons that saved humanity, such as Armageddon
and Deep Impact (1998).[6] Blast from the Past (1999) is a comedy about a 1960's family caught
in the grip of Cold War paranoia. Falsely convinced that World War III has started, they hide in
their fallout shelter, only to emerge 35 years later in the post-Cold War world. Jonathan Schell
complained to the New York Times that "the post-cold war generation knows less about nuclear
danger than any generation."[6]

Yellow Peril (1991) by Wang Lixiong, is about a civil war in the People's Republic of China that
becomes a nuclear exchange and soon engulfs the world. It was banned by the Chinese
Communist Party but remained popular.[citation needed]

[edit] 2000s: Concern over terrorism

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a scenario of World War III beginning as a result
of a nuclear or other catastrophic terrorist attack became prominent. Terrorism in the form of
nuclear, chemical, or biological attacks now occupy the place in popular culture once held by the
vision of a nuclear World War III between world powers.[6]

Paramount Pictures released a film adaptation of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears in 2002.
The production of the film began before 9/11, and was originally intended as an escapist thriller
where CIA analyst Jack Ryan fights Neo-nazis who conspire to detonate a nuclear weapon at a
football game to start a nuclear war between Russia and the United States. However, the film’s
release just seven months after 9/11 made it very topical. Phil Alden Robinson, the film's
director, commented that "a year ago, you'd have said, 'great popcorn film,'...Today you say,
'that's about the world I live in.'" There was an aggressive promotional campaign, with movie
trailers and television commercials showing the nuclear destruction of a city and a special
premiere for politicians in Washington, D.C. The Sum of All Fears was Paramount Pictures most
profitable film of 2002.[6]

Recently, World War III has also become the topic of several popular video games, reflecting the
trend towards increased public consciousness of the possibility of a future global war. Games
such as Tom Clancy's EndWar, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Frontlines: Fuel of War, paint
scenarios about a Third World War driven by the need for resources on the part of the various
combatants. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 also shows a global war between the United States
and Russia. Other games such as World In Conflict, and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty take place
in alternate histories where global war is a reality, the former being a war between the United
States and the Soviet Union, and the latter being a war between the United States and a much
stronger Nazi Germany that won World War 2, both games depicting an invasion of America.
The Fallout Series portrays the effects of a nuclear holocaust in the future after a war between
China and the United States in the late 21st century.