1970s: Global Wrath
It's 1970. Three years earlier, the Summer of Love rocked the West while two years earlier the Prague Spring shook the East to it's core. Meanwhile non-aligned nations have increasingly been forced to choose a side with the choosing even being forced at gunpoint by foreign powers. The "wrong" choice is often fatal for those involved on the "wrong" side of the power and influence struggle. Foriegn interference is now rife as every nation pushes to get it's slice of the cake, no matter how meager it may be.
Both the USA and USSR dump vast ammounts into weapons and preparations for WW3 under the cover of Détente while both NATO and Warsaw Pact nations attempt to mend relations without provoking the ire of either major superpower. The global economy is on the upswing but it's major reliance on oil might very well doom it. The divides in the world are also ever greater as the technological gap between rich and poor, and East and West deepens.
The world was always a cruel place. But it is especially so now. The decade of the 1970s is shapping up to be a critical one. The balance of power is ever changing, and it's balance is delicate at best. Beneath the surface of materialisim and growing wealth lies the dark side of the world. A side that may very well rear it's head.