The US government and AT&T were often at loggerheads over their
monopolistic practices. A sign that hung in many Bell facilities in
1983 read:

There are two giant entities at work in our country, and they both
have an amazing influence on our daily lives. . . one has given us
radar, sonar, stereo, teletype, the transistor, hearing aids,
artificial larynxes, talking movies, and the telephone. The other has
given us the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the First World War,
the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, double-digit
inflation, double-digit unemployment, the Great Depression, the
gasoline crisis, and the Watergate fiasco. Guess which one is now
trying to tell the other one how to run its business?