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On This Day: Churchill Delivers "Iron Curtain" Speech
March 05, 2009 06:02 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill coined the phrase the “Iron Curtain” at a speech in Missouri. The term came to define the divisions of the Cold War.
Monumental Churchill Speech Stirs Controversy
Speaking at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, Churchill shocked the world when he uttered the famous words, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”
Although Churchill was no longer the British prime minister—he was defeated in the election of 1945 and moved on to head the parliamentary opposition—the speech carried tremendous weight. After all, Churchill had warned the British government of the looming Nazi threat prior to World War II, and now he was pointing to the emerging danger posed by Stalin and the Soviet Union.
Churchill’s words stunned and angered many, especially the American public. A New York paper described it as an "ideological declaration of war against Russia." After six years of the worst war in history, the last thing people wanted to hear about was a new enemy, according to history Web site American Heritage. Police even had to restrain a violent mob when Churchill arrived in New York a few days after the speech. But his intent, some say, was not to incite war but rather to "avoid conflict."
The Soviet press did not print the speech, and it was not published in Russia until 1998. When Joseph Stalin learned of it, he called Churchill "a warmonger,” and associated him with Hitler.
However, author Vladislov Zubok argued that Stalin simply used the speech as a “pretext for mobilizing the Soviet people against their former allies.”
About a year later, President Harry Truman issued the Truman Doctrine, asserting that the United States would “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” And the Soviet Union continued to consolidate its hegemony east of the Iron Curtain.
Although Churchill was no longer the British prime minister—he was defeated in the election of 1945 and moved on to head the parliamentary opposition—the speech carried tremendous weight. After all, Churchill had warned the British government of the looming Nazi threat prior to World War II, and now he was pointing to the emerging danger posed by Stalin and the Soviet Union.
Churchill’s words stunned and angered many, especially the American public. A New York paper described it as an "ideological declaration of war against Russia." After six years of the worst war in history, the last thing people wanted to hear about was a new enemy, according to history Web site American Heritage. Police even had to restrain a violent mob when Churchill arrived in New York a few days after the speech. But his intent, some say, was not to incite war but rather to "avoid conflict."
The Soviet press did not print the speech, and it was not published in Russia until 1998. When Joseph Stalin learned of it, he called Churchill "a warmonger,” and associated him with Hitler.
However, author Vladislov Zubok argued that Stalin simply used the speech as a “pretext for mobilizing the Soviet people against their former allies.”
About a year later, President Harry Truman issued the Truman Doctrine, asserting that the United States would “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” And the Soviet Union continued to consolidate its hegemony east of the Iron Curtain.
Biography: Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
Churchill was born on Nov. 30, 1874, to Lord Randolph Churchill, an aristocrat, and Jennie Jerome, the daughter of an American businessman. As a young man, he served as a soldier and was sent on expeditions to Cuba, India and Egypt, and also worked as a war reporter in South Africa. After being elected to Parliament in 1900 he joined the House of Commons as a Conservative, but eventually crossed over to the Liberals. He became a Cabinet Minister in 1908, and Home Secretary in 1910. He rejoined the Conservatives between 1922 and 1924, and was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1924.
Source: Churchill College
Historical Context: World War II and the Cold War
Churchill became Britain's prime minister on May 10, 1940, the day that Hitler launched his blitzkrieg attack on France, Holland and Belgium. World War II had begun a year earlier with Germany's invasion of Poland.
The Cold War began around the time of Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech and concluded with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union in the late 80s and early 90s. "The Cold War rose not from one isolated event, but from the different ideologies and interests between the Soviet Union and the West," notes the Cold War Museum.
The Cold War began around the time of Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech and concluded with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union in the late 80s and early 90s. "The Cold War rose not from one isolated event, but from the different ideologies and interests between the Soviet Union and the West," notes the Cold War Museum.
Related Topic: Echoes of the speech today
"Churchill Speech a Lesson for the Present"
In 2006, 60 years after Churchill’s speech, William Horsley of the BBC wrote that leaders in the present should learn from Churchill’s words. According to Horsley, “After all these years Churchill's Iron Curtain speech reads like an example of true statesmanship, and perhaps the most memorable ‘wake-up call’ in post-War history.” Horsley warned that leaders should take notice of similar abuses in the world today, citing some “uncomfortable parallels” between Putin’s Russia and the former Soviet Union.
Source: The BBC
"Germany Still Divided 18 Years After the Fall of the Wall"
In November 2007, 18 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, German newsmagazine Der Spiegel published a poll that found that “eastern Germans are less satisfied with and less optimistic about their situation than those living in the states that made up the former West Germany.” But, the poll also indicated that those “differences appear to be shrinking.” Der Spiegel also found that 67 percent of eastern and western Germans “felt they had different identities from their counterparts.”
Source: Der Spiegel
Bush’s "Axis of Evil" Speech
In a Feb. 11, 2002 opinion article, Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker expressed concern about President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” speech. During the speech, Bush stated that Iraq, Iran and North Korea constituted an “Axis of Evil,” recalling both Ronald Reagan’s 1982 “Evil Empire” speech about the Soviet Union, and Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946.
Source: The New Yorker
Reference: Winston Churchill audio
A BBC page devoted to audio recordings of three of Churchill’s most famous wartime speeches begins with the observation that he “is often referred to as the greatest orator of the 20th century."
Source: The BBC
A selection of excerpts from Churchillian orations is available online from Soundboard.com.
Source: Soundboard.com
The Churchill Centre reprints the iron curtain speech—originally titled “The Sinews of Peace”—in its entirety and offers a YouTube video clip of the oration.
Source: The Churchill Centre
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