The Cold War Era was between 1947 to 1991. In 1949 Sir Winston Churchill gave an address on foreign affairs at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. He said: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, and iron curtain has descended across the Continent [of Europe]. "The term the Cold War came from the American financier Bernard Baruch in a congressional debate in 1947. It was a actual war between the Soviet Union and the United States. There were political charges in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in 1989, that brought the Cold War to an end.

    The Cuban Missiles Crisis in October 1962 the Cold War came very close in  becoming a hot war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Cuba was the only Communist country in the Western Hemisphere and a thorn in the side of the United States. Democracy had failed in 1961 when American backed Cuban nationals attempted unsuccessfully to invade Cuba. Nikita Khrushchev promised in 1960 to defend Cuba with the Soviet arms if needed. Therefore he ordered a intermediate range nuclear missiles in Cuba. On October 22, 1962, the President John F. Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba. No weapons would be allowed into Cuba by ship. On November 20, 1962 the blockade was lifted.

  In Nicaragua the resulted in a victory of the revolutionary Sandinistas in 1979 over the President Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The Soviet Union continued to supply arms to the Sandinista government amid charges by the United States. These arms were being carried to guerilla forces. The United States tried to unsettle the Sandinista government by giving financial aid to the guerrillas. Guatemala hold guerrillas in check. Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Mexico continued to work toward the resolution of political problems about the isthmus. Led by Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica, the Presidents of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras started a peace action, and effort for which President Arias was given an award the Nobel peace prize in 1987. The quest for peace was also joined by the personal involvement of Pope John Paul ll, Javier Perez de Cuellar, and the United States. Nicaragua and the Contras was achieved in 1988.