I’d imagine it may have been - if not specific to the US, it certainly wasn’t the case in the UK. Unlike the government of today who see investment technology skills as a way to produce meaningless sound bites and perhaps fill up some office space on a roundabout somewhere, the government of the 80s insisted the BBC embark on a computer literacy programme which had wide ranging consequences - the lack of follow up throughout the years is perhaps why I hear British accents wherever I go across the Bay Area though!