johndoe@gmail.com
FacebookAre you sure you want to reset the form?
Your mail has been sent successfully
Are you sure you want to remove the alert?
Your session is about to expire! You will be logged out in
Do you wish to stay logged in?
Winston Churchill is renowned as a great orator, one of the most famous of the twentieth century. It was a reputation that was cemented during the Second World War. In particular, during the crisis of 1940-41, when, in a series of set piece speeches and broadcasts, he led the British national response to the fall of France and the direct attack of the German Luftwaffe.
But there is also one passage from one post war speech that has proved equally enduring:
‘From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the continent.’ (CHUR 5/4A/83)
Winston Churchill delivered that line almost 80 years ago on 5th March 1946. He did so in the American mid-western college town of Fulton, Missouri. This was not London, or New York or Washington DC. So, why Fulton?
What made this particular invitation from the President of Westminster College standout was the manuscript codicil. For at the bottom of the speech, in a hand that would have been instantly recognisable to Churchill, you can read the lines:
‘This is a wonderful school in my home state. Hope you can do it. I’ll introduce you. Best Regards. Harry S. Truman.’ CHUR 2/230/350)
Here was an invitation from the President of the United States to share a platform; one that would guarantee both extended travelling time, to and from Missouri, with the most powerful man in the world as well as a Presidential platform that would attract the world’s media.
But why did Churchill need such a platform? On a personal level, this was about relaunching himself on the international stage. In the fall of 1945, he was no longer British Prime Minister. His Conservative Party had been comprehensively defeated by Clement Attlee’s Labour Party in the General Election that summer, with Labour winning a landslide 146 seat majority.
Now aged seventy, there was a sense that Churchill was running out of time. He remained leader of the opposition but Antony Eden was keen to take over and in the corridors of Whitehall, Conservative party voices were starting to whisper about the possible succession. Fulton, was a chance for Churchill to reassert himself and regain control of the narrative.
Ironically, it was also an opportunity that was welcomed by Attlee’s Labour Government. The war had left Britain’s economy in tatters. In September 1945, the American Government had abruptly closed down the Lend Lease scheme by which equipment, materials and supplies had been loaned to the UK, maintaining a vital lifeline in wartime. The British were now desperately trying to negotiate the best possible terms for a huge dollar loan from the United States in order to keep the UK economy afloat. Churchill, half American by birth, retained an iconic status in his mother’s homeland, and was therefore seen as London’s most powerful asset and advocate in this campaign to sway American opinion.
But for Churchill, the argument over the loan was only a small part of a much bigger question revolving around the nature of the post war Anglo-American relationship. In an age when the US now had the atomic bomb, and had risen to become the most powerful nation in the world, he was concerned at the unravelling of the close US/UK political and military ties that he had forged with Roosevelt during the war, and worried by American withdrawal from the Europe at a time of Soviet encroachment from the east and political instability and weakness in the west.
Even before the German surrender Churchill was using terms like ‘iron curtain’ and ‘third world war’ in his private telegrams to refer to the declining international situation with the Soviet Union (CHAR 20/218/109-110 & CHAR 20/218/83).
To Churchill, the fruits of victory, and the maintenance of Britain and her Empire, ultimately depended on the closer co-operation of the English-Speaking world, which would now have to be led by the United States. It was this vision that he sought to articulate at Fulton. Missouri, and it was why his title for this address was not the ‘iron curtain’ speech, but rather ‘The Sinews of Peace’.
The Churchill Archive Online includes drafts (CHAQ 2/4/1/1-99), final speaking notes (CHUR 5/4/51-100) and corrected copy, marked up by Churchill’s secretary with what he actually said (CHUR 5/4/1-50). Interestingly, the speech does go through some notable changes. Initially Churchill was going to open with a reference to the American Civil War, starting ‘The tragic, glorious years of the Civil War have been mellowed by history’ (CHAQ 2/4/1/2). He probably decided this was not a good idea. Surely thus was too divisive a note on which to begin a speech that would be broadcast right across the United States and around the world. The whole passage was accordingly crossed through, though some of it was ultimately used in his speech to the assembly of Richmond, Virginia, three days later.
But perhaps more consequentially the drafts also reveal how Churchill toughened his stance to the Soviet Union. In one subsequently deleted section he had initially admitted that during the war the Russians ‘suffered the most’ and ‘bore the brunt of a terrific German onslaught and played the main part in breaking the German Army’ (CHAQ 2/4/1/21). The removal of these lines was most likely influenced by the evolving international situation. For, as he worked on the speech in early 1946, the Soviets were refusing to withdraw from Iran and were threatening Turkey. The hardening US response, which ultimately culminated in the despatch of the powerful USS Missouri to Turkey, must have formed a large part of Churchill’s conversations with President Truman and leading administration figures like Dean Acheson (Under Secretary of State) and James Byrnes (Secretary of State).
The drafts therefore provide a window into a moment in time. You can see Churchill trying to shape events while also responding to them.
In his final text, as delivered, Churchill warned the United States that ‘with primacy of power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future’ (CHUR 5/4/54). He then reminded his audience of the negative impact of those ‘two giant marauders, war and tyranny’(CHUR 5/4/57). To deal with the first – war – he called for the United Nations to be equipped with an international armed force of air squadrons. But he opposed sharing the atomic secret, which must remain with the United States, Britain and Canada. Addressing Tyranny, he defended the rights and freedoms of the individual against the State and announced that the ‘crux’ of what he had travelled here to say was that the prevention of the war and the success of the United Nations organisation was dependent on the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples, advocating for a ‘special relationship’ between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States (CHUR 5/4/72). This would be founded on close military co-operation, joint use of bases and eventually the principle of common citizenship.
It was only then, in the second half of his speech, that he turned to the threat posed by the Soviet Union and his famous passage about the descent of the ‘iron curtain’ before reminding his audience that ‘Last time I saw it all coming and cried aloud to my own fellow countrymen and to the world, but no one paid any attention’ (CHUR 5/4/95). His conclusion was that only the strengthened world instrument (meaning the UN) ‘supported by the whole strength of the English-speaking world and all its connections’ could provide ‘The Sinews of Peace’ (CHUR 5/4/97).
Early in his remarks Churchill made clear that he had ‘no official mission or status of any kind & that I speak only for myself’ (CHUR 5/4/53). Here was a recognition that the speech would be seen as controversial by many, and was clearly intended to provide diplomatic cover for the British and American governments. It was Churchill not Attlee or Truman who was criticising the Soviet Union, a wartime ally; and it was Churchill who was calling for an ever-closer Anglo-American ‘special relationship’ and for alliances outside the new United Nations structure.
The initial reception of the speech was certainly mixed (see newspaper cuttings CHAQ 2/2/48-51). President Truman, though filmed clapping in the audience, quickly distanced himself from the remarks denying any foreknowledge of what Churchill was going to say, while Attlee faced similar questions in the UK. Meanwhile, Stalin took the rare personal step of launching a scathing attack on Churchill in Pravda, decrying Churchill as a racist and a warmonger.
Churchill of course refused to modify or retract a single word. For him, regardless of any criticism, the speech was a personal triumph. He was back on the front pages.
This speech was part of a wider reset in geopolitical relations. It occurred at the same time as the American diplomat in Moscow George Kennan sent his explosive 8,000 word long telegram to Washington DC warning of the Kremlin’s insecurity and ‘neurotic view of world affairs’ which meant that there could be no ‘modus vivendi’ with the United States.
The Fulton speech was part of a bigger battle of ideas over how to deal with the challenge posed by the Soviet Union. It signalled and reinforced a direction of travel that was already gathering pace in Washington DC and which ultimately led to the Marshall Plan, the breaking of the Berlin blockade and the creation of NATO. But the journey was not smooth or instant.
Where to find documents in the Churchill Archives
The Churchill Archive contains a wealth of information on the ‘iron curtain’ speech, allowing the researcher to follow its development from invitation and inception to reception. The following files will provide a good starting point:
