Anti-nuclear discourse, which peaked in 1981-82, signaled an emergence of public discourse on the nuclear warfare issue. During the development of the original atomic bomb, public discussion of the issue was severely restricted, but immediately after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, discourse on the subject increased. During the Cold War era, serious discourse occurred within only a few special interest groups supporting disarmament and among government officials and foreign policy elites. Discussion during the early 1960s centered on the controversy surrounding testing. In 1981-82, the American public began attending to and generating discourse on the subject of nuclear warfare. Many books, monographs, and films were produced illustrating the effects, especially the negative effects, of nuclear war. Little imaginative literature dealt with the subject; instead the discourse emerged in serious, non-fiction realms. In these works, the cause of the potential for nuclear holocaust is political, specifically either deception by the government, national sovereignty, or citizen apathy or ignorance. Contemporary discussion of nuclear warfare signals a reversal in the speaker-audience relationships. In the past, elite experts directed their comments toward the populace; now the public itself is gaining legitimacy as a voice on this issue. (SRT)