what closed the the globe in the 1950s?

Answer 1

You possibly mean the "Cold War"?

Answer 2

Winston Churchill, not long following the end of World War II, coined the term 'Iron Curtain' to describe much of Eastern Europe and what was then the Soviet Union. Communist regimes were set up in Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the eastern portion of Germany (those are just off the top of my head), and contact with the West was kept to a minimum.