I started school in the early 1995 and I remember doing drills to prepare us just in case an attack may occur. I can remember evacuation drills to the school auditorium, and how each grade had their own area in which they would meet. Although I did not experience living under the fear of a nuclear war I believe that living under the fear of terrorists attacks are very similar. I was very young so I did not take the drills too seriously because I was not fully aware of all the dangerous things that can happen suddenly. I remember being in the 5th grade and hearing the school alarms go off and every student was to report to the school auditorium like we had practiced every week. We were then sent home early and I remember turning on the television and seeing the explosion caused by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. I panicked because my father was working in Manhattan at the time and I did not know how close he was to the attack. From that day on I knew the importance of drills. I also began to experience living in fear of a terrorist attack.
The threat of nuclear war and the threat of terrorism are similar in that it causes American citizens anxiety and stress because nobody wants to die before they have to. The threat of nuclear war would most likely have a precursor, such as a situation like the Korean War or the Cuban Missile Crisis, and so it would possibly be expected. With terrorism, nobody knows when, or how terrorists are going to strike and so it is very hard to prepare the country and its citizens to prevent such an attack. Also with nuclear war it has the potential to kill millions of people and create untold damage to infrastructure. With terrorism, nobody expects the damage to be so high, but in the future it could if terrorists obtain chemical, biological, or nuclear