From Mental Floss:

Before Nicholas Meyer’s made-for-television film The Day After had its official airing on November 20, 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan and his Joint Chiefs of Staff were given screening copies. In his diary, Reagan recorded his reaction to seeing Meyer’s graphic depiction of a nuclear holocaust that devastates a small Kansas town, writing:

“It’s very effective and left me greatly depressed. So far they [ABC] haven’t sold any of the 25 spot ads scheduled and I can see why. Whether it will be of help to the ‘anti-nukes’ or not, I can’t say. My own reaction was one of our having to do all we can to have a deterrent and to see there is never a nuclear war.”

…

The experience stuck with Reagan, who signed a nuclear arms treaty—the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, Treaty—with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, leading to longstanding speculation that The Day After may have helped sober political attitudes toward mutually assured destruction. [Mental Floss]

The trailer is fun. Watch:

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