Do you think manufacturing pagers in Lebanon is a viable alternative?
it would be more realistic for them to receive it from the iran but there might be political hurdles to this and it would end up costing the iranians as hezbollah can't be expected to pay much for it
That was "advanced modern technology" then, and as the passage of time has marched forward, what we consider modern changes - so what's your point?
Also I can tell you, no airplanes or TVs were built in my country either. They never were, 100 years ago, 50, 20 or nowadays.
So when you said “The idea of the majority of manufacturing being external to a country” you must have meant the US.
Domestic production of goods such as televisions, radios and even extremely high technology such as tractors has been declining since the 70's.
If you go far enough back (100y or so) then "imported" usually referred to raw materials, spices or very exotic equipment such as furniture - the supply chain and tooling was mostly domestic.