But even if the Gulf crisis does become a war, Gitlin says the protests at college campuses will look very different from the ones that rocked Harvard, Berkeley and other schools 20 years ago.

For starters, Gitlin says, today's students might be less eager to protest. While many students in the '60s were willing to be different because their economic futures were secure, today's students must contend with a far less welcoming economy--a factor that will reinforce conservatism.

"The difference is the economic climate," Gitlin says. "The economy is contracting...and many students are worrying about whether they'll be doing as well as their parents did."

In addition, the draft played a key role in turning college students against the Vietnam War. Despite all the hype over leftist ideologies, most historians agree that only the end of college draft exemptions drove anti-war sentiment from the political fringes to the campus mainstream.

So it may take another draft to ignite America's college students against the war, and that, Gitlin says, is a pretty unlikely possibility right now.

"I think that lesson was learned from Nixon, and other presidents," Gitlin says. "You don't fight a war with a democratic army."

Today, Harvard students are being asked to march through Boston Common, as part of a nationwide protest against the war.

Although organizers say they have high hopes for a strong turnout, they recognize that anti-war sentiment is still not very solid. And that realization has at least a few Harvard activists worried about the future.

"These are our future leaders of America--What are they going to do when they are our senators?" Ehrenreich says. "I'm embarassed to be a student here sometimes."

Michael Mayo and Jonathan Samuels contributed to the reporting of this story.