The Iron Curtain Speech and the start of the Cold War

Kurt W. JeffersonAssistant Dean for Global Initiatives/Director/Professor

Churchill Institute for Global EngagementWestminster College

Fulton, Missouri (USA)

Winnie’s Wit

• Lady Astor: Prepositions• “Some neck, some chicken!”• Trip to Fulton (whiskey, whiskey, whiskey!)

Churchill: The Good, the bad, the ugly

• Virtuous hero or war-monger?• “Un-modern man in a modern world”• Outlook: shaped by military background (not unlike Eisenhower &

De Gaulle)• Aristocratic background (Dukes of Marlborough); noblesse oblige• Distinct careers:• Young man: military (South Africa, Sudan)• 1910-1922: Liberal ministerial portfolio• 1922-40: Backbench MP/Wilderness/writer• 1940-45: Prime Minister• 1945-51: MP, out of office• 1951-55: Prime Minister

Why Fulton?

• Kansas City Times: December 22, 1945• Major General Harry H. Vaughan ’13 (Truman military aide)• 15,000 requests for tickets (gym capacity: 2800, chapel

overflow: 900)• Budget: $5000 (today: $64,508.79)• Churchill-Truman entourage: 100 people• Crowd: 25,000• Tuesday, March 5, 1946: 71 F and sunny• Senator (now Secretary of State) John Kerry (2004): “You

don’t come to Fulton to give a speech, you come to honor a legacy.”

The “Fulton Speech”

Source: www.westminster-mo.edu

The speech (“Sinews of Peace”)• First used term “Iron Curtain” in May 1945 in a telegram to Truman

tied to concern about Soviet movements• “Iron Curtain” had descended across Europe• Changing geopolitical map (Stettin, today “Szczecin” in northwest

Poland): Sweden, Prussia, Germany, Poland to Trieste in the Adriatic (Yugoslavia to Italy)—ancient capitals of Europe (Prague, Berlin, Budapest, Vienna, Belgrade, Warsaw, etc.)

• Prelude to the speech: Intentions of the Soviets under Marshal Stalin: Feb 1946: Stalin speech—another war inevitable due to the nature of the western capitalist system

• 10 months after the Speech: (January 1947 George Kennan’s “X article” (“Sources of Soviet Conduct”) vigilance and containment of “Russian expansive tendencies”

“Danger, Will Robinson!”(Sorry, post-1945 to pre-1969 Cold War American TV reference!)

• Soviet expansion is coming and unchecked• Way to combat: Anglo-American alliance• Future: UNO as a “Temple of Peace”• Analysis • Postscript: Proud of the United States (I’m half-

American – Jenny Jerome Churchill, American nouveau riche, married Randolph Churchill) “Profound is my love for this great Empire.”

History

• Source: abcnews.go.com.

Take-aways• “Iron Curtain” into the historical lexicon (first used, in context, by

Viscountess Ethel Snowden in her 1920 book Through Bolshevik Russia)—but Churchill made it stick

• Start of Cold (Yes, No, Maybe so?)• Churchill relevant again after crushing (July 1945—while at Potsdam)

defeat at polls• Churchill reverting to “default” (war-mongering?)• The end of the 1914-45 Long War (Niall Ferguson and others)• Beginning of the Cold War era that lasts until 1991• Beginning of new systems in government for defense, military,

intelligence, and altered geo-politics of President Harry Truman (DOD, NSA 1947, NSC, etc.)—don’t underestimate Truman’s far-reaching importance (will affect Churchill in 51-55 government

• End of British Empire and declining influence of Britain geo-politically

Source: i.huffpost.com

56 of 59 Scottish seats at Westminster (May 2015)

www.img.rt.com

www.globecartoon.com

Source: www.stealthinflation.org

Churchill’s “Fulton Speech” Today

• Shia/Sunni war in Syria and Iraq (Islamic State, Sunni insurgencies, Shia counterinsurgencies, etc.)

• Scotland, Wales, Ireland devolution/separatism

• Greek debt crisis

“Imponderables” Exercise

• Churchill’s view• Truman’s view• Churchill’s suggested outcomes• Truman’s suggested outcomes• Does the issue fit in a “Cold War” paradigm?• If so, why?• If not, why?