Into an Unknowable Future
By TOM BROKAW
Published: September 28, 2001
the effect on our political and popular cultu
Every great turn of history's wheel takes us in a new direction, but the destination is not easily discernible because the lessons of history are not fixed and immutable. OBVIAMENTE: NIPNGÚN HISTORIADOR PUEDE AFIRMARLAS CON ABSOLUTA CERTEZA. DEPENDEN DE QUIÉNES LAS NARRAN Y DE QUIÉNES A PARTIR DE SUS RELATOS HACEN SU PROPIO RELATO
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 seem to have been every bit as jarring to most Americans as the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor were for another generation. But Pearl Harbor led us into a great war and out of a great depression. This new war on terrorism will be fought less conventionally, and it could lead us into a deep recession.
Nonetheless, the two events are bound by a common reaction of, first, shock, then patriotism, national unity and a determination to fight back. But as we learned so painfully in Vietnam and the Russians learned in Afghanistan, military superpowers can be brought to their knees by enemies who have geography and zeal on their side, whatever their number. The lessons of David and Goliath are as fresh today as they were in biblical times.
On the home front, the success of the United States in World War II was due in large part to the common commitment of civilians as well as of those who were in the armed services. Factory workers JUSTO ES RECORDARLOS stopped producing cars and started producing war planes and tanks; women went without stockings; children went without toys; families learned to ration sugar and meat.
In this new fight, the American economy will take a hit, but it is coming down from a very high high. We've been living on a rich diet, and though that may now change, many of the sacrifices are more likely to be inconveniences.
When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I was a young reporter working in Omaha. I was a true child of the 50's, innocent and conventional in my ambitions. I remember thinking then: "This doesn't happen here. This will change us." But I could not have anticipated the cataclysmic change that followed, from Vietnam, through social upheaval, to Watergate. Almost 40 years later I feel as uncertain as I did then, knowing only that change is coming again in forms we cannot foresee.
Tom Brokaw, author of "The Greatest Generation," is managing editor of NBC Nightly News.
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