The 60's? lol. The started pushing hard under Obama, hence his "deal" with them, which effectively funded the whole operation. There is dispute as to how long it would take them to be "capable" of delivering a weapon, but there is no dispute that they had enriched uranium to military grade and were stocking up on it. Bombing these facilities were always on the table, under Obama, Trump 45, and Biden. Israel provided the cover by initiating this attack. They have good reason to bomb the entire country of Iran, given that Iran funded, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and however many other groups who have been lobbing thousands of rockets into Israel for the last decade. Not to mention the rockets that have been fired at our own forces in the region, killing many Americans. Our response was measured, and it was limited to legitimate military targets.
So far as the "fear and panic", I'm not sure who you're talking about, because all the countries in the region live in fear of Iran getting nukes, because they know Iran has promised to wipe out Israel and the great "Satan" which is the USA. Fear and panic is what drives people to overthrow governments, so I'd be ok if the good Iranian people would take advantage of this and do just that.
Iran is run by religious extremists known as Twelvers. The believe in the imminent return of the 12th Iman, which in their theology, arrives only after a great worldwide bloodshed begins. They believe that they can bring him into power by initiating a world war. A nuclear weapon in their hands would give them this ability. Firing rockets into Israel of at American bases in one thing, but a nuclear weapon would bring about a nuclear response, and likely drag other nuclear powers into the war. This whole attack is predicated on preventing them from doing just that. I'm not sure it's done anything but by some time, but we'll see.