In 1988, well-known U.S. actor William Shatner starred in a commercial with the nifty jingle, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile… This is the new generation of Olds.” It was not the presence of Captain Kirk from Star Trek that would make this commercial memorable. Instead, it was the line, “not your father’s Oldsmobile,” that would become a pop culture catchphrase, so much so that the word Oldsmobile could be substituted for any legacy topic to make a point about the need for change.

In December 1988, a few months after the airing of the Oldsmobile commercial, Pan Am Flight 103 plunged 31,000 feet and crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, after a bomb exploded onboard. Several groups quickly claimed responsibility for the bombing, including the Islamic Jihad Organization. Following a three-year joint investigation by the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), two Libyan nationals were found responsible for killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members.

In the 1980s, for the sake of simplicity, terrorism experts generally grouped terrorists into two main categories: international and domestic. The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing easily fit into the international category since its actors were Libyan nationals and the victims were U.S. citizens.

In 1981, New Jersey State Trooper Philip Lamonaco was shot and killed during a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in New Jersey. Trooper Lamonaco had stopped two members of a radical environmental group known as the United Freedom Front (UFF). From 1975 to 1984, the UFF committed 10 bank robberies to support their radical efforts, which included bombing energy sites. The UFF would easily fit into the domestic terrorism category, as a group committing terrorism within their own country.