The call to serve is no less urgent today

I don't recommend a partial allegiance to different Princeton classes — in my case '70 and '72. One tasteless blazer is more than enough. Interrupt your four years at Princeton only if your time will be better spent away. I left to enlist in the Army and go to war in Vietnam. At the very least, this choice made my Princeton experience unique. My friends considered it foolhardy at best. It certainly wasn't politically correct. I'm struck by the parallels between then and now.

As with so many other contentious issues, a large majority of Princeton students were simply disengaged when it came to the war in Vietnam. I'd guess a super majority of these were inclined to defer to the judgment of Congress and the President. But this was a silent majority. Virtually all those actively engaged and voicing opinions on the war were vehemently opposed to it.

Student deferments partially explained the reticence of this silent majority. Few humans seek combat. Most avoid it like the plague. The same is true of soldiers. We did not have enough volunteers to obtain the numbers sought by our military commanders for combat in Vietnam. So we implemented the draft. Like Iraq and Afghanistan, the Vietnam War was a subtle mixture of diplomacy and nation-building with both conventional and counterinsurgency combat. We needed our best and brightest for this type of effort, but college students had deferments from the draft.

For Ivy Leaguers sheltered by deferments, openly supporting the effort in Vietnam was uncomfortable, if not hypocritical. No one I knew thought that student deferments furthered America's national security interests. Their exemption from combat, they believed, was simply a matter of class politics, privilege and power. This, for most, was a difficult belief to internalize or justify in the era of civil rights, the War on Poverty and power to the people.

I didn't have an opinion about the wisdom of the war. I was among those who thought 19-year-olds should defer to Congress and the President on issues like this one. But I felt guilty about being exempted from a risk others my age were shouldering. And I was pretty sure it was important to have kids from elite colleges involved in this particular kind of conflict.

I'm certain of that now. America's hard and soft power tools fare poorly against asymmetric, non-state threats like those now posed by militant jihadists. Creativity, diplomacy, cultural awareness, judicious perspective and a keen intellect are among the attributes crucial to this fight. Students at elite colleges bring these talents to the table. Unlike many other forms of warfare, the quality of our combatants is now far more important than the quantity.

The Vietnam War was much bloodier than this one has been so far. But that can quickly change. Our world today is far more interdependent, though still poorly integrated. Clashing views and cultures rub against one another more frequently, and the inevitable conflagrations are more difficult to quarantine. When combined with readily-available technology — particularly biotechnology — this interdependency can enable "super-empowered" individuals and small groups to pose enormous threats to civilization.

While arguing constructively about critically important sub-issues, liberals and peace activists should wholly support efforts to derail militant jihadists who use terrorism and violence to trample individual freedom and rights. Princeton's unofficial motto — "In the Nation's Service and in the Service of All Nations" — is particularly apt since the battlefield is worldwide. The University's faculty, staff and students — along with those at other elite institutions — should join this effort.

How? Flood politics and public life with graduates. Encourage faculty to be involved in research and development potentially helpful to the effort. (The Wilson School's "Princeton Project on National Security" is uniquely suited to the talents of elite institutions. My thanks to Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter '80.) Embrace military recruiters and the Reserve Officer Training Program. (The Vietnam-era parallel here is striking. Don't simply reject our military institutions. Work to improve them. They are critical to our overall effort to protect human rights. And they need all the help they can get from our best and brightest.)

I've been privileged to serve in many different capacities in my life, and I look back on my service in the military, particularly in combat, as unquestionably the highlight of my Princeton era. I'm sorry more of my fellow Princetonians were not involved. We needed them then. We need them now. Congressman Jim Marshall '72 was a politics major and now represents Georgia's 3rd Congressional District in his second term. He left Princeton University in 1968 to volunteer for infantry combat in Vietnam and received two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart.