During the 1980s and 1990s, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala suffered from civil wars, while Honduras suffered more than a decade of civil strife in the form of a "dirty war". This period also saw mass migration from Central America to neighboring countries, Mexico and the United States. Prior to 1980, the United States limited its recognition of refugees and asylees to those fleeing from communist governments, while the 1951 United Nations Convention and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees more generally accepted the definition of refugees and asylees as those fleeing their country from political oppression. The Refugee Act of 1980, signed into law by Jimmy Carter, established the definitions of asylum and refugee status in line with those of the United Nations. However, the United States was still in the midst of the Cold War, which strongly influenced public recognition of civil war and political oppression around the world. For example, 98% of Salvadoran requests for asylum were denied, while approximately the same percentage of Nicaraguans who claimed to be fleeing from a far leftist government was granted political asylum.