No, they didn’t.
The high-tech industries - Silicone Valley and the Silicone Forest - didn’t want them because they were too old. They wanted literally hundreds of thousands of newly degreed engineers from China and India.
I was laid off from the engineering department of a nuclear plant in early 1993. I remember hundreds of thousands of electrical engineers here, in the USA, who couldn’t get jobs yet lots of visas were requested by Microsoft and other firms.
President Bill Clinton, being the whore for political donations, would do anything for money. He screwed over the Americans looking for work. You bet those firms got their H1 visas!
Ack! Sorry to hear it. I just knew many people in the early 90s who were studying engineering with the expectation of going into defense, but most of them pivoted into high tech when the defense jobs dried up. Many found lucrative work in high tech. But yes, they all eventually competed with the H1Bs.