In 1972 as the US is nearing its exit from the now decade+ old war in Vietnam, another phase in warfare sees its beginning.  Asymmetric warfare.  Not big battles anymore, nor necessarily  state level actors playing according to the rules of the Geneva Convention, this event marks the beginning of the worlds awareness of terrorism.  It occurs at the '72 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.  A group of terrorists (Red Army) kidnap members of the Israeli team.  Deaths occur when the German police move in.  A connection can be drawn from this event to the 9/11 attacks.  The sequence in order goes like this: Baader-Meinhoff gang and Red Army pull off the initial event, on July 4, 1976 a huge terror event at Entebbe, Uganda in which Israeli units crush the hijacking terrorists.  The CIA hires Osama bin Laden to infiltrate suspected terrorist group, Mujaheedin in Afghanistan, Osama is left behind in Afghanistan, Osama merges with remnants of Iraqi Republican Guard and form Taliban, which morphs into al-Qaeda.  After 9/11 and al-qaeda is, much of the Iraq Army and police are fragmented, a power vacuum exists and ultimately DAESH (ISIS) will arise.

During the 1970's a competition is going on to see who will be the leader in  computers for home use.  IBM already dominant in the business side of the market, is battled by Apple, Microsoft, and Tandy (Radio Shack).  IBM takes the lead in hardware, Microsoft takes the lead in software, Apple does both and wins, Tandy does both and loses despite its built in advantage of 5000 retail locations.  Tandy's mistake was that of many burgeoning empires, they over expanded, diluting their talent, without the proper infrastructure in place, and got caught over investing (speculating, Wall Street, and was on a downward spiral after the 9/11 ~ 2008 Crash).

A Chicago company, Zenith, inventor of the remote control and HD, is the first company to sue Japan for "dumping" low cost goods into the US market.  Economic warfare is becoming more refined.

1984 Bell Labs and its spin-off AT&T is broken up by the US government.

 

During the 1980's the greatest transfer of wealth in history occurs under President Ronald Reagan. Taxes are slashed on capital gains, which serves as a catalyst for money to flow into the stock market, from MAIN STREET to WALL STREET. To help balance the books, Reagan starts taxing social security payments and double payroll taxes on middle income workers.
 

The movie "Star Wars" enters the lexicon of the US as more than a movie, President Ronald "Ray-Gun" Reagan envisioned a space based missile shield over the USA.  It was called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or "Star Wars."  The basic concept is to intercept the missiles before they make their descent into American airspace.  This would be accomplished by directed energy weapons fired from satellites.  The system as designed is not deployed, however it led to many scientific advances which are used today.  The defense spending during the Reagan era, driven in part by SDI budget, elicited a concurrent increase in Soviet defense spending.   During the same period the Soviets were chin deep in Afghanistan.  They broke the bank, which played a huge part in the ultimate demise of the USSR.  USSR falls.

1982 Mitsubishi who had previously invented radar (1910), and made the infamous airplane the "Zero" and Toshiba are making big screen TV's.

In 1986 US spies in Norway undercover a plot involving Japanese firm Toshiba and Norwegian Kronenberg.  They are using special software and lathes to produce propellers which will render the Soviet sub fleet undetectable by the US.

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In 1989 the Berlin Wall falls. In 1991 the USSR collapses. Ukraine holds 1500 nuclear weapons. The power vacuum left by the Soviet collapse convinces Iraq (Saddam Hussein) to invade Iraq (1991).

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The World Trade Center experiences its first bombing in 1993.