Sometimes I reflect that the decade between the end of the Cold War and 9-11 were by probably the most peaceful days America had known since before World War I. So I’m asking what were the attitudes of people like in those days, and how did they view the future?
Way to make everyone feel old there Qin!
That’s “what were,” kiddo.
I don’t think you’re wrong about it feeling peaceful. I’m only old enough to remember the tail end of the cold war, and I don’t remember being afraid of being attacked by another nation until 9/11. People even just a couple of years older than me will tell you how scary it was to feel threatened by Russia, but it didn’t loom large enough to make an impact on me or my elementary school classmates in the mid-to-late 80s, and of course by the early 90s even that vague threat was put to rest.
The thing is, though, 9/11 was terrible, but I’m not consumed with worry about terrorist attacks these days, either. I’m a lot more worried about the economic future of the US than I am about a repeat of 9/11. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that people felt that way on December 7th 1951, either.
As for how people viewed the future in the decade before 9/11, I don’t really know how it’s different. How do you think they view the future now?
Thank you.
Well I think it is a mixture of optimistic and pessimistic-most people don’t expect a nuclear war anymore but they don’t see the War on Terror or even the current economic crisis ending anytime soon.
No worry about terrorists. Just nuclear bombs and how dark and dank is my shelter.
I recall reading an article from Newsweek or Time in the late '90s. It was saying that although most indicators showed that Americans had never had it so good, economically, politically etc. that there was a huge wave of pessimism about the future. I wish I could recall more about the article to find a link.
“The country elected another Republican President, and so it’s screwed.” And it was.
What or who are you quoting? 
Well, news was duller. As I recall, the big scandals at the time were Gary Condit’s intern going missing, and whether older kids were lying about their age to get into Little League.
With a whole heapin’ helpin’ of “What’s with all the shark attacks lately?”
What about Clinton’s sex life? It was fairly big news for much of the period.
News was slower. Recall the story about Governor Mark Sanford “disappearing”?
Bush was president by then, and it was old news.
Cheap gas, cheap groceries…good music…wait. Wasnt that the 60’s?
Woo-hoo! Just 20 more years until the cycle repeats itself!
Unlike young elfkin, I’m old enough to remember when the Cold War meant something. And I grew up in a military town that was a major strategic target. So I grew up knowing that I and everyone I knew could all be killed within an hour by a nuclear first strike.
So I felt good about the end of the Cold War. Especially because we won it. And we didn’t even have to fight a real war to do it. It was like 1945 without all the dead people - pure victory.
There were wars and terrible things that happened in the nineties - Somalia, Kuwait, Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Rwanda - but Americans didn’t have the sense that it was a threat to us. We felt like “history was over” and all that was left now was to straighten up the details when we got around to it.
But no Hippies.
Only feminists and liberals paid any attention to the plight of women under Islamic fundamentalism. Americans still occasionally referred to the Afghan guerillas as brave, freedom fighters for their repelling of the Soviet forces, but most people probably didn’t remember what country Kabul was in.
As far as I can tell, it caused a hyper-patriotic movement in a vast, yet vague way. Having grown up in the 80s, and living out the 90s while in my 20s, the only difference I notice now is the crack-down on security at airports, and far more “arab hate”. Or at least, the bigoted feel more free to do so, I guess.
The threat of nuclear attack was vague, and still is, but now it just feels more probable. America hasn’t been attacked on that level since Pearl Harbor, and absolutely nothing like this in the continental US.
I think it’s more likely that a dirty bomb is eventual now, rather than an actual thermonuclear war with a nuclear power. God help us all if some extremest group puts together a cobalt-60 bomb or twelve.
I think there was a general feeling in the late 90’s that we were in a period of peace and prosperity. Even the war in Kosovo wasn’t like THAT big a deal to most people. IMHO, I think it was about as pressing an issue as Libya is today: yeah, we’re kinda sorta at war, but it just wasn’t a big deal.
As I remember it, the biggest issues in the few years leading up to 9/11 were education, maybe a little concern about Social Security and health care, and at least in the last year or two leading up to 9/11, what the hell to do with all the surplus money in the Federal coffers.
The Internet was pretty much viewed as an invincible, endless supply of cash for any idea that could get their hands on a .com address.
And, the music was much better.
i too grew up on military bases. nuclear war drills sucked. our schools were labeled fallout shelters. that was a drag…