The Class of 2007: You Survived College, Now Comes the Ultimate Survival

For my parents’ generation, the greatest worry of graduating college students was obtaining their first “real world” job and staying out of Vietnam. My generation of college graduates faces a world where the Iraq War is always present in the news and in which terrorists may strike against civilians at any time.

Entering this world is quite frightening but the class of 2007 will be able to pull through. As potential leaders of our society, we will have to tread very lightly and carry more carrots than sticks if we will be able to have a positive impact and possibly solve the problems of our 21st century world.

The major difference between the world that our parents entered after college and the one the class of 2007 will enter is the structure of the international system. In the 1970s, international politics was entrenched in the bipolar rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. The competition between the two superpowers and the ideologies associated with each state was manifested in a nuclear arms race and proxy wars in the developing world.

The U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was focused on the policy of containing the spread of Communism. The Vietnam War is the epitome of using the U.S. military in order to enforce the containment policy. The U.S. Army sent military advisors and troops in order to support the “democratic” Southern government against the Communist Viet Cong who controlled Northern Vietnam.

Throughout the 1960s, the U.S. became more and more entrenched in the fighting in Vietnam. The U.S. military had initial success defending the South from Communist encroachment, but as the number of U.S. casualties started to climb, so did the domestic resistance to American participation. In the end, the U.S. lost the war when the Communists assumed control over all of Vietnam.

Although our parents lived with the threats of Soviet nuclear attacks and the spread of Communism looming over their heads, the bipolar rivalry had a few advantages. The American people knew where the attack on U.S. soil would be coming from and who would be firing the missiles. Also, the fact that nuclear war could complete annihilate the entire human population served as a powerful deterrent for either side to launch their arsenal of weapons.

With the end of the USSR in 1990, the international system suddenly lost the rigid structure that characterized Cold War politics and diplomacy. In the new multipolar world, the rules of engagement have completely changed. The new threats come from non-state actors, such as terrorist groups. These associations are not part of any legitimate governments and are not obliged to follow the code of conduct followed by these legitimate states.

These terrorist organizations do not have any responsibilities to maintain the rule of law and order. In fact, their purpose is to strike fear into the general population. The most frightening aspect about these groups is that they could strike anywhere and at any time.

The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001 were an example of how terrorists can strike at any moment. The unconventional means of attack displayed by the hijackers makes it nearly impossible for American intelligence agencies to predict when and in what form attacks will occur. Twenty-first century terrorists do not have organized munitions plants where they construct their weapons, as the USSR did during the Cold War. They use whatever they have on hand. The 9/11 hijackers used box cutters to take control of the planes. Suicide bombers use themselves as detonators.

During the Cold War, American families prepared for the potential nuclear fallout by building bomb shelters and stockpiling food. Although these actions may not have saved their lives, people were at least able to prepare for the possible attack.
Today, there is no sense of security walking through a subway or train station. The threat of attack can come from a single person who you can see, not a missile you will never see or hear coming. This makes it nearly impossible for any government, intelligence agency, or ordinary citizen to mount an adequate defense against terrorist groups.

The only thing that terrorist want us to fear now IS fear itself. The only way to avoid this trap is to remember that our parents went through a similar but not identical experience during the Cold War. They survived the cat and mouse game that terrorist groups try to play today. Their experience shows the graduates of 2007 that living in a world of uncertainty surrounded by ominous threats of destruction is possible if one keeps the fear from penetrating and controlling daily life.