COLD WAR BETWEEN U.N., ABC OVER ‘AMERIKA’ HEATS UP

Peace on TV is as illusive as peace on Earth.

The United Nations is angry about an ABC miniseries tying the U.N. to a Soviet takeover of the United States.

In one scene from “Amerika,” Soviet-controlled U.N. troops nearly wipe out the House of Representatives and torch the Capitol. In another, the nuking of five U.S. cities is suggested as a “final solution to the American problem.”

“The whole thing is paranoia,” Francois Giuliani, spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, charged Wednesday about “Amerika,” which will run at least 12 hours. “The secretary general is aware of it and he is concerned.”

What’s more, the U.N. may even be contemplating legal action against ABC for using the organization’s logo in “Amerika” without authorization, another U.N. official said.

Forceful U.N. opposition could affect foreign sales of the $32 million-$40 million “Amerika.” However, Giuliani’s and other U.N. blasts at the project were rejected by ABC Wednesday.

If “Amerika” is a big hit, its national TV audience could approach 100 million. So a dozen-plus hours of showing the U.S. under a brutal Soviet dictatorship may influence public opinion about the Kremlin and arms-control talks.

Tentatively scheduled to air in February, “Amerika” stars Kris Kristofferson, Robert Urich, Christine Lahti, Cindy Pickett, Wendy Hughes, Sam Neill and Mariel Hemingway. It takes place in 1996 with the new U.S.--now called “Soviet United Nations Amerika”--under occupation by U.N. puppet forces directed from the Kremlin.

The Kremlin leader’s name-- Gropeichev-- has a familiar ring.

Hence “Amerika” is at once Soviet-bashing and U.N.-like bashing, as the entertainment industry--spurred on by the lucrative jingoism of Rocky and Rambo--opens another front in the Cold War.

On Wednesday, the U.N. released a separate statement declaring that it’s “seriously concerned at the series’ apparently defamatory treatment of the United Nations, its emblem and its peace-keeping operations, which does a particular disservice to the memory of those U.N. soldiers who gave up their lives in the cause of peace.”

An even stronger condemnation of “Amerika” appears in a 20-page analysis of the script prepared by U.N. staff as an internal memo. The memo, which was made available to The Times, charges that the 579-page “Amerika” script is “thoroughly xenophobic and preaches a very clear political message.” It adds that “Amerika” portrayals are “symptomatic of the effort to nurture antipathy towards the U.N contingent.”

The U.N. has long been a target of U.S. conservatives who urge withdrawal from the international body, charging that it’s impotent and a tool of Soviet and anti-U.S. interests.

The U.N. blast at “Amerika” is typical of the “intellectual and moral corruption of the organization,” charged Reed Irvine, chairman of rightist Accuracy in Media (AIM). “There is such a large body of Soviet sycophants in the U.N. now that I wouldn’t be surprised at anything they say about anything that could be offensive to the Soviets,” Irvine said.

“For decades, right-wing groups have been saying the U.N. is a Soviet puppet,” said Jeff Cohen, director of the leftist Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). “It’s a ridiculous canard, and it’s shocking that a network would give credibility to such a notion.”

Since its inception, “Amerika” has been trailed by controversy. That includes denunciation by the Soviets and charges--denied by ABC--that “Amerika” is meant to appease conservatives irate about “The Day After,” ABC’s 1983 movie depicting the destruction of Lawrence, Kan., in nuclear war. Those conservatives accused ABC of wanting to undermine U.S. nuclear policy.

Now comes “Amerika,” where the U.N.’s name and logo are frequently displayed to represent the raping, pillaging and murdering occupation forces.

And about that possible legal action against ABC over using the U.N. emblem?

“We are discussing the matter with our lawyers to see if there are legal complications,” said Yasushi Akashi, U.N. undersecretary general for public information.

Speaking by phone from New York, Akashi stopped short of promising a U.N. suit, but added that U.N. officials who have seen the “Amerika” script believe it smears the U.N. “We are concerned, studying the matter very closely and deciding what attitude to take,” he said.

Akashi declined to specify what legal foundation the U.N. would have should it decide to sue ABC.

This would not be the first time the U.N. initiated legal action against a private U.S. concern to stop unauthorized use of its name or logo. Not long ago, it took action even to stop a Miss U.N. beauty pageant.

However, this would be the first U.N. legal step against a TV network. “The emblem is not just any kind of emblem,” Giuliani, the secretary general’s spokesman, said from New York. “It represents a great deal to the member countries. For them to see (in ‘Amerika’) that their troops are used to suppress Americans is of very grave concern.”

Calling the “Amerika” premise “absurd,” Giuliani predicted that nations supplying U.N. peace-keeping forces will resent the ABC miniseries. “These are countries friendly to the United States,” he said. “And don’t forget that the peace-keeping soldiers in Korea are under U.S. control.”

When U.N. soldiers are identified by nationality in “Amerika,” they are East German, Cuban, Angolan, Chilean, Honduran and Vietnamese. The U.N. internal memo charges that “selective” singling out of U.N. troops by nationality reinforces an anti-U.N. bias in “Amerika.”

ABC Entertainment President Brandon Stoddard, who commissioned “Amerika,” declined to comment. However, Bob Wright, ABC director of publicity for movies and miniseries, disputed the U.N. remarks, which were relayed to him by phone.

“We simply don’t agree with the characterizations that you just read to me,” he said. “This is a fictitious piece set 10 years in the future, and it’s made clear in the screenplay that the original intent and purpose of the U.N. has been usurped.”

Wright said the goal was for viewers to appreciate American values and “not take the United Nations and its role in world affairs for granted.” He added that he could not respond more specifically to charges he hadn’t seen first hand.

The U.N., Akashi said, has made its feelings known to ABC with “very unsatisfactory results.” He said there has been a “heavy exchange of letters,” but that ABC’s response “does not meet our concerns.”

Those concerns are easy to identify.

--The “Amerika” script contains 87 references to the U.N., whose Soviet-guided “peace-keeping” forces are called “United Nations Special Service Units.” Their helmet liners are white “with the familiar blue stripes of the U.N.”

--A woman traumatically recalls being raped by four U.N. soldiers.

--A U.N armored unit destroys a shantytown occupied by homeless, defenseless Americans, rolling over them and their tents. This scene is part of a 32-minute “Amerika” sales tape that ABC is using to pitch advertising agencies, a tape ending with oppressed Americans defiantly singing the National Anthem in front of U.N. troops.

--The flag of the “Soviet United Nations Amerika” is visible in scenes on the “Amerika” sales tape. It’s blue like the actual U.N. flag, featuring the U.N. white globe-and-olive-branch logo flanked by a Soviet flag and an American flag, minus stars.

And so on and so on.

Written and directed by executive producer Donald Wrye, “Amerika” is set in a Kansas farm town where former Congressman Devin Milford (Kristofferson) has returned after serving a six-year prison term for urging resistance to the Soviets while running for President in 1988.

His appeasing friend, Peter Bradford (Urich), hopes to become governor general of a five-state area under Soviet Andrei Denisov (Neill), who’s sleeping with an American actress (Hemingway). Peter’s wife, Amanda (Pickett) is in love with Devin, whose sister, Alethea (Lahti), has gone to seed.

Heroic Devin eventually slips off to Chicago intending to nab his two sons from his former wife, Marion (Hughes), a Soviet-loving hussy, but is ultimately turned in by his brainwashed younger son. Devin is tried--with his former wife as judge--and executed. But his older son survives to carry on the fight, in case ABC is thinking of an “Amerika II.”

The Soviets gained control of the U.S. bloodlessly, using their Electromagnetic Pulse to knock out communications and make the nation give up without a fight.

“You lost your country before we got here,” Andrei tells Peter. Devin, too, believes “lack of courage and faith in our democratic system” doomed America. That sounds like an indictment of pointy-headed liberals. And Peter preaches the same line in a lecture to his wife:

“The last time there was any real American spirit was World War II, 50 years ago, a damned half century. I’m so tired of this ‘I am an American’ bull. Where was all that patriotism when it counted? Where was that willingness to sacrifice? Nobody wanted to join the damned Army to defend the country unless they got paid well.”

Peter seems to be telling Americans of today that we’re not patriotic enough.

Although Stoddard initially claimed credit, the idea for “Amerika” is reported to have originated in a 1983 column by conservative Ben Stein in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

Stein is a former speech writer for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Criticizing “The Day After,” he urged “my dear friends at ABC” to “make a movie about what life in the United States would be like if we lived under Soviet domination.” He suggested a broad scenario roughly that of “Amerika.”

Filming, in Toronto, Tecumseh, Neb., and Little Rock, Ark., was done secretively and crew and cast members reportedly made to sign oaths not to reveal story details. Production was trimmed from an original 16 hours.

ABC had to weigh a Soviet threat to stop cooperating with ABC News in Moscow should the miniseries be aired. Another early protest came from Elliot Richardson, the former defense secretary and attorney general under Nixon and Ford and now chairman of the United Nations Assn.

” . . . it is inconceivable to me that ABC could be giving serious consideration to such an apparently McCarthy-esque presentation,” Richardson wrote Stoddard. “It sounds like a very strong political statement produced under the guise of entertainment.”

That was echoed by FAIR’s Cohen. “This kind of programming builds walls between people,” he said. “We’d like to see some programs that build bridges.”