Winston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' Speech: A Cold War Icon - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Iron Curtain speech by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is among the most known orations of the Cold War. Given in the American town of Fulton, Missouri, on the 5th of March 1946 after an invitation by the United States of America president, Harry S. Truman, Churchill alluded to a grand shadow having befallen eastern Europe (Muller, 1999). He referred to a situation where significant parts of the continent had been plucked away from the rest of the free world by an Iron Curtain that had been forged in Soviet totalitarian control, influence and police government.

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The speech itself was Churchill's reaction to Joseph Stalin's February 1946 speech referred to as the Bolshoi speech. The speech embodied ideologies and beliefs of the communist nature that were seen attacking American capitalism. Furthermore, the speech included the statement, "world capitalism proceeds through the crisis and the catastrophes of war," to which American politicians and analysists took as an act of provoking peace. With close association and communication with intel deep in soviet soil, the Americans established that the soviets were to be involved in the destruction of America and that they must be stopped as they can be easily beaten, among the other reasons. Muller (1999) felt that Churchill's Fulton speech was urging people, notably the imperialistic alliance of the world to rise and fight against Stalin's supposed tyranny.

The speech deconstructs Soviet influence and policies from Europe. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent." As such, this particular speech has always been considered as one of the major reasons for the emergence of the cold way.

This powerful oration is precluded by a heart-warming introduction by the president himself, where he describes Churchill as a man of focus and sheer will. The lighthearted note here quickly evolves into a captivating speech that acts as an eye-opener for everyone in the world. Churchill's focus was on a move against the ever-expanding Soviet Union. He gave brief descriptions of the soviets from his many years of dealing with them while he was in office as the British Prime Minister. He observed that "nothing which they (Soviets) admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness."

The occupants of the hall at the time of the speech seemed to have been okay with everything Churchill was uttering. They had already moved to conclude that the only thing to counter the Soviet expansion would be a tough stance akin to war. Churchill called for a joint partnership between Great Britain and the United States to which a lot of officials were skeptical about. Their view was that even though Britain was an excellent partner during the world and cold wars, its power and influence in the new world was dwindling thus America did not wish to0 be baited into playing pawn roles for the nation (Muller, 1999). Despite this, Winston's visit to Fulton and Westminster college as a whole is seen as a right step in US-Britain relations. In the opening of his speech, Churchill says, "I am glad to come to Westminster College this afternoon and am complimented that you should give me a degree. The name "Westminster" is somehow familiar to me. I seem to have heard of it before. Indeed, it was at Westminster that I received a very large part of my education in politics, dialectic, rhetoric, and one or two other things. We have both been educated at the same, or similar, or, at any rate, kindred establishments." This strong opening shows a close relationship, not only between Truman and Churchill but between America and Great Britain.

It is trivial to mention that Churchill was very different from normal politicians in that he always took to his dealings with a long-term goal in mind. His race transcended the normal 'win the next election,' and usually focused on the betterment of society and the world around for the next generation. Ryan (1979) argued that this state of mind allowed him to solder through some of his most infamous mistakes that drew almost everyone's trust away from him and his abilities in the political sphere. His speech thus, though not as direct as first, was pointing to the coming of the Cold War. Mentioning the Iron Curtain that fell from "Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic" not only showed Churchill's command of public speaking but also his prowess in political analysis.

Churchill viewed the drive of the Soviet Union to expand as more than a simple ideology of soviet subversion and aggression. To him, this was a grand scale fulfillment of the expansionist dreams of earlier Russian Czars by the Soviet commissars. It was an impulse innate to the Russians, and he could not equate it to their subjectivity but rather an objective view based on historical facts.

With this looming threat, Churchill urged the countries under the banner of the West to hold firm and stay together. He advocated for a new unity that would not outcast any nation. Iron Curtain, from this point of view, is a historic yet very powerful warning against a relentless and equally ruthless opponent. Both the political system and military effort of the Soviet Union are enough causes for anxiety. This entire speech, in my understanding, was an alarm being sounded by Churchill, leading us to Soviet misdeeds that sorely stuck out through history. True enough, the events of Fulton stirred a wave of protests through American cities like New York where the citizens went up in an uproar because they thought ending the second world war would end all wars. They had lost enough. Then what was Churchill's point in raising such thoughts in the minds then and in ours now? Churchill understood that through time, something remain constant. One of these things is war and death walking one in hand. As a scholar of history, he had encountered many civilizations that had been wiped from the face of the earth and had concluded that no one truly had time to waste on this earth. His view on wars past and recently was that the only winner was death. Yes, the West had/has several nuclear weapons, but in the case of a war, the only winner will be death. He did not want the West to waste time in talk and conferences but to deal with its problems head-on (Ryan, 1979). "Beware I say; time may be short. Do not let us take the course of allowing events to drift along until it is too late." As a remedy to this Soviet Union conundrum, he offered a solution, something he had offered years back in the year 1939; Russian national interest.

To Churchill, the Russians did want to expand, but this did not necessarily equate to them wanting war. "What we have to consider . . . is the permanent prevention of war." This, Churchill saw as the common ground between the West and the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

To conclude, the Iron Curtain is a wonderful speech that can be quoted for eons to come as it is timeless. A non-scientist and an excellent politician and political analyst, Winston Churchill, was truly ahead of his time. His predictions of taking care of a rising threat before it was too late saved the world as we know it and his advocation for peace steered the world away from yet another world war that would have claimed countless lives.

References

Muller, J. W. (Ed.). (1999). Churchill's" Iron Curtain" speech fifty years later. University of Missouri Press.Ryan, H. B. (1979). A New Look at Churchill's 'Iron Curtain Speech. The Historical Journal, 22(4), 895-920.