Warday

infobox Book |
name = Warday
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = 1985 paperback edition
author = Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Nuclear war, Novel
publisher = Holt, Rinehart and Winston
release_date = 1984
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 374 pp
isbn = ISBN 0030707315
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Warday and the Journey Onward" is a novel by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka, first published in 1984. It is a fictionalized account of two reporters traveling across America five years after a limited nuclear attack in order to research how the nation had changed after the war. The novel takes the form of a documentary of sorts, and is written in first-person narrative form. The novel includes fictionalized government documents and interviews with individuals to further explain the aftermath of the war.

Plot summary

The novel opens with Strieber's account of a nuclear attack on New York City. He is traveling in a bus when he is blinded by a flash of light. The series of warheads, which have detonated slightly off target and to the east, detonate with a combined force of 20 megatons of TNT. The explosion rips through the city, igniting Brooklyn. Another series of warheads are detonated at sea, creating tsunami that flood the subway system. Making his way through the wreckage, Strieber reaches his son's school, where he meets with his wife and son. The family stays in the school for two weeks, suffering from radiation sickness. Eventually, when it is safe to escape, Strieber leaves the city with his family. As revealed in an interview with a former Undersecretary of Defense, in the months before the nuclear attack the United States was on the verge of deploying an advanced anti-ballistic missile system known as "Spiderweb". The system threatened to negate almost any potential Soviet nuclear attack, utilizing an orbiting particle beam to destroy warheads as they left their delivery vehicles (clearly an allusion to the hotly debated Strategic Defense Initiative proposed by the Reagan administration, colloquially known as "Star Wars"). Panicked by the threat of an American military operating without fear of reprisal, during initial deployment of Spiderweb by the Space Shuttle Enterprise the Soviets destroy the Shuttle and its cargo using a hunter-killer satellite. The conflict escalates rapidly from this point, beginning with the Soviets detonating a set of six large nuclear warheads 100,000 feet above the US, causing a massive electromagnetic pulse that cripples computers, electronics, and car ignitions across the country. Immediately after, NORAD detects a series of Soviet satellites deploying warheads. Faced with this, the President (who is aboard NEACP) orders a limited strike on the USSR to eliminate Moscow, Leningrad, and the administrative capitals of the Soviet Republics, thereby destroying the Soviet government. In the meantime, most of the US and USSR navy fleets destroy themselves with nuclear missiles shot from ships and submarines.At the beginning of the nuclear excange, the US president is informed that Western and Eastern European countries enforced a secret agreement to avoid being destroyed in the war, leaving both NATO and Warsaw Pact alliances and declaring themselves neutral. US and USSR controlled military bases throughout Europe were occupied by the hosting country's national troops. In thirty-six minutes, the war is over. Only the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are directly affected by the blasts.

The cities of Washington, D.C., San Antonio, and the Brooklyn and Queens boroughs of New York City suffer direct hits and are completely razed. In addition, ICBM missile fields - and the surrounding countryside - in North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming are vaporized (Omaha comes out of the conflict unscathed despite public knowledge that the Soviets had - circa 1982 - over two dozen warheads targeted for the area's military command & control centers). The attack is therefore considered "limited" because only the administrative and critical military centers are destroyed, excluding the majority of other American cities. However, the nation suffers nevertheless. The remaining part of New York City is evacuated and eventually allowed to fall into ruin. The dusting of the Midwest and Central Plains by radioactive materials causes a famine that kills millions of people. Also, less than a year after the war, a new strain of influenza known as the Cincinnati Flu quickly reaches epidemic levels, taking additional millions of lives throughout the United States. Even after these catastrophes, a constant danger of radiation is present even for those far away from the blasts, as well as a new disease called Non-Specific Sclerosing Disease, or NSD. There are hints about the city of Philadelphia being evacuated in the years following the war due to the heavy fallout contamination from Washington D.C bombing.

As well as the human cost, the war left its mark on the economy and politics of the country. Due to the electromagnetic pulse from the first wave of bomb blasts, virtually all bank accounts, transactions, and other electronic assets--including those in Canada--simply vanish. Because of this, money undergoes a rapid deflation: the cost of a home is reduced to 800 gold dollars. In addition, electronic machinery and devices are rendered useless, which further limits the economy. Since the federal government was critically reduced due to the bombing, individual states like California and Texas form de facto independent nations, with autonomous military forces and currency. Most of the communities in the north-central States hit by nuclear weapons are almost left to themselves, their economies in ruins. The same also happens to Hawaii, as touristic fluxes and supplies are drastically cut. Also, a new Hispanic/Native American nation named Aztlán is brought into existence through a violent revolution and, apparent, ethnic cleansing of the Anglo population of El Paso, Roswell, far western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Aztlán is portrayed as a socialist nation.

Culturally, the United States undergoes several radical changes. For one, the Catholic and Episcopal churches reunite in a spirit of reconciliation after the disaster, and assisted suicide in the face of painful terminal illness is accepted and sanctioned by religious leaders including the current Holy See. In addition, new factions emerge, such as witch healers and the Destructuralists, who push for a complete dismantling of any form of civic authority. In addition to this, foreign companies and nations see America as a ripe market to sell electronics, machinery, and investments. Some who are interviewed see this as an attempt by foreign powers to reduce the United States to a Third World nation, with a dependency on them. It is revealed early on that the United States has become very dependent on the UK and Japan for aid and support. In the world of the book the British Relief, an aid organization that has backing from British military units stationed in the US has a major role in governing the country even to the point of occupying some areas. In the section set in Aztlan there allusions to a major Japanese military presence there which would be the main reason that Texas had been prevented from reasserting control there. There are also several mentions of worry that Japan and the UK will enter into a Cold War. Another anecdote in the book about how far the US has fallen is when its casually mentioned that the US had sold Alaska to the Canadians, with the oil of the Prudhoe Bay being diverted to Vancouver. Canada, also, was affected by the electromagnetic pulse though not being directly hit by nuclear weapons, and suffered the effects of electronic failures. The country closed its borders to US refugees, especially expelling many people from North Dakota who sought shelter across the border in the days following the war. The Canadians keep a very critical eye on the US, blaming the country for having enterd the war without thinking of the consequences to neighbouring countries.It is also alluded to that, with the exception of Japan and Europe, and perhaps other first world nations, the rest of the world has fared very badly with the sundering of the global economy by the war. It seems that Mexico experienced a major famine that killed most of its population and lead to a series of civil unrests. Argentina, though escaping unschated from the war, was occupied and divided among Western nations (similar to what happened to Germany after World War II) in an effort to keep food stocks directed to Europe stable.

It is also mentioned that the USSR had been far more badly damaged than the US: a "dirty" nuclear bombing of Ukraine destroyed most of the country's farming capabilities causing an heavy famine, while some former USSR states (the "kingdom of Khazakhstan" is mentioned) declared themselves independent. Is is also mentioned that the city of Vladivostok, where most of the nuclear USSR Pacific fleet submarines were harboured, was destroyed. Rogue USSR submarines still roam the Arctic seas, sacking Alaskan communities for supplies, with unspecified orders of deploying more warheads to the United States and other targets in the future. These submarines are actively hunted by the UK navy as they pose a major threat to world's security.

A major portion of the book deals with developments in California and the other Pacific Coast states which escaped the war unscathed and have since sealed themselves off to refugees from the rest of the US. Those who succeed in entering California are treated very harshly as "illegal immigrants," in some ways reminiscent of the way California dealt with migrants during the Dust Bowl. The book's two protagonists, who smuggle themselves from ravaged Texas into California, are caught and narrowly escape spending long prison terms on charges of illegal entry, their journalistic credentials notwithstanding.

Although actually published in 1984, the novel purports to be a journalistic account written in 1993, five years after the war, which takes place in late October, 1988. The novel contains a fictional copyright page bearing the date 1993.

The War

According to the novel, the war takes place on October 28, 1988, during the late afternoon. This date becomes known as Warday. 7,340,548 Americans die on Warday. 67,800,000 Americans die in the 5 year-period between Warday and when the novel takes place. 21,600,000 die from the "Cincinnati flu". 26,200,000 die from the "Famine of 1988". 17,000,000 die from radiation related illnesses, and 3,000,000 die from other causes.

On Warday, eight locations in the US were attacked.

1. New York City was hit by three 10-megaton missiles, which detonated on the eastern edge of Queens, leaving Long Island and the rest of the city radioactively contaminated, with Brooklyn and Queens destroyed in a firestorm. In addition, several weapons were detonated at sea, which resulted in the subway being flooded.

2. Washington D.C. was hit by six 10 megaton missiles. The city was completely destroyed, with not a building remaining. The heat from the combined explosions also damaged neighboring Baltimore, and fallout spread into Eastern Maryland and Delaware.

3. San Antonio, TX was hit by three 10-megaton missiles, also leaving the city very much destroyed. Austin, TX was damaged by the heat of the blasts, and fallout spread towards Houston. San Antonio, on Warday, was home to a major SAC base and military hospital

4. Malmstrom AFB, near Great Falls, Montana, was hit by at least twenty-five 1-megaton bombs. The fallout spread through eastern Montana, into Wyoming and South Dakota.

5. Grand Forks AFB near Grand Forks, North Dakota, was hit by at least twenty-five 1-megaton bombs. The fallout spread through central Minnesota and upper Wisconsin.

6. Minot AFB, near Minot, North Dakota, was hit by at least forty-five 1-megaton bombs, with fallout spreading through North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa.

7. Ellsworth AFB, near Rapid City, South Dakota, was hit by at least thirty-five 1-megaton bombs. The fallout spread through South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri.

8. F.E. Warren AFB near Cheyenne, Wyoming, was hit by at least thirty-five 1-megaton bombs. The fallout spread through Wyoming, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska.

All these military bases were home to Minuteman missile fields. Five years after Warday, South Texas, the Northeast Corridor, and portions of the central United States, stretching from central Montana to Kansas to Chicago, remain contaminated in some form.

Differences from other post-nuclear holocaust novels

As opposed to the majority of other novels dealing with the aftermath of nuclear wars, "Warday" does not presume that civilization will fall in the event of such an attack, or even that local and national governments will fail. Indeed, the authors make a point of postulating a "limited" nuclear attack, in which only "key military and infrastructure" targets would be destroyed (as opposed to total destruction of all major cities). Even after such a relatively mild blow, the United States' economy, political structure, and society is changed irrevocably by the attacks.

The novel was hailed by Senators Edward Kennedy and Mark Hatfield as being a remarkably accurate and realistic depiction of a nuclear war's aftermath, although some have said that the book is much too pessimistic about the ability of the United States to recover from such an attack. However, in light of the severe disruptions of the US financial and stock trading systems which resulted from the September 11, 2001 attacks, "Warday" could be seen as an accurate predictor of how the US economy would be crippled by even a single nuclear detonation on New York City or even Washington, D.C.

The pattern of the nuclear exchange postulated in the book seems remarkably similar to that appearing in Robert A. Heinlein's 1957 novel "The Door into Summer". In that book, too, Washington, D.C., New York and a few other locations are destroyed but most of the country avoids being bombed and refugees stream into California which remained intact. "Warday" also differs from "The Door Into Summer" in the focus of the plot. In Heinlein's book the war leaves no severe lasting effects: the country quickly recovers, the refugees find a ready welcome in California which has no difficulty in absorbing them, and there is no mention of any lasting medical problems from radiation. In fact, after the first few pages the nuclear war recedes completely into the background, with the plot turning to the protagonist's tangled love life and the conspiracy of his crooked partner to steal his inventions. By contrast, the effects of the war are perpetually felt throughout "Warday", and while the interpersonal sub-plots exist, they take a back seat to just how the war has affected the American Way of Life from as many aspects as possible within the confinements of a reasonable-sized novel.

Heinlein - an outspoken Cold War hawk - seemed to imply that such a "limited" exchange would be an acceptable price for getting rid of Communism once and for all. The writers of "Warday" may have consciously borrowed Heinlein's basic scenario in order to show how horrible the results could be. In fact, Kunetka has gone on record that Heinlein's novel was something of an inspiration for how he and Streiber wanted to do "Warday", but both he and Strieber have also stressed that the real inspiration for the tone of the book came from legendary CBS journalist Charles Kuralt's "On The Road" series of features he produced and narrated for the network.

equels

During the book tour surrounding the release of "Warday", both Streiber & Kunetka hinted that they were planning a sequel in which the two would venture overseas and reveal how Western Europe, Africa, China, Japan, and the remnants of the Soviet Union fared ten years after the limited exchange. However, both writers instead released "Nature's End", and then ceased writing together for reasons neither have explained. In the years since "Nature's End" was released, Streiber's switch in focus towards his "Communion" series of UFO novels, along with his collaborations with Art Bell, has resulted in the indefinite shelving of this project.

The Streiber book "Wolf of Shadows" may have been dealing with the same storyline/universe as "Warday".

ee also

*List of Nuclear Holocaust fiction
*Nuclear Holocaust
*Nuclear weapons in popular culture

External links

* [http://www.emptyworld.info/book_warday.html Emptyworld.com's article for "Warday"]
* [http://www.beyondcommunion.com/warday/840430pm.html People Magazine 20 April 1984 Article on "Warday"]