By all accounts, 1986 seemed to be mostly about Terrorists, countries harboring terrorists, and countries getting caught.

Probably the most dramatic would be the Iran-Contra scandal that blossomed forth in 1986. The other would be the ongoing problem with Libya and Libya's ties with terrorist organizations.

Not a good year if you were an American tourist. It seemed that bombs were going off in tourist hangouts all over Europe during the Summer and countries were scrambling to find solutions.

It wasn't all bad news though. A popular uprising toppled the Marcos regime in the Philippines, paving the way for democratically elected Corzon Aquino to assume leadership for the first time in many years. The upshot was we didn't have to hear about Imelda Marcos' shoes for a while.

But the year was laced with drama. No less grim was that of Chernobyl and the specter of nuclear power plant accidents and disasters, which were on the rise. Up to that point we only had Three Mile Island to compare it all to. Now the new measure for disaster was Chernobyl.

All in all 1986 gave the decade a dose of reality it was avoiding for a while. Since the Reagan Years sought to paint a rosy picture of the Shining City On A Hill - the terrible reality was the facade was crumbling.

1986 as part of the CBS Radio Series Where We Stand with Walter Cronkite.