On the international stage, the CS was embroiled in a war against a Communist insurgency in Nicaragua that threatened to envelope all of Central America. By the election of 1968, with the war still raging, the new party challenged, and beat the Democrats. The 'space race' with the Soviet Union, provided a glue that kept not only the Confederacy, but all of North America together. In spite of all the political strings he pulled, though, Johnson was not able to watch the moon landing from the White House. He did, though, enjoy the pleasure of talking to the first astronauts to circumnavigate the moon on Christmas Eve of 1968.