On January 14, 1946, the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, arrived in the United States on trip both personal and business in nature. Part of his itinerary was a speech to be delivered in the first week of March in Westminster College, a small (250 students)Presbyterian liberal arts institution in Fulton, Missouri. The college had issued an invitation to Churchill to speak and grant him an honorary degree when they have learned of his planned trip to the U.S. However, as they are doubtful that Churchill would accept, the president of the college, Franc L. McCluer sought the help of one of its alumni, Maj. Gen. Harry H. Vaughan, who was the military aide to President Harry S Truman. Truman was immediately supportive of the idea, and added a postscript to the bottom of the invitation sent to Churchill: "This is a wonderful college in my home State. Hope you can do it. I will introduce you. Best regards." In reply, Churchill accepted the invitation: "Under your auspices anything I say will command some attention...."
In February, while vacationing in Florida, Churchill flew to Washington to discuss with Truman about the speech. Fleet Admiral William Leahy, chief military adviser to the President recorded: "The subject...will be the necessity of for full military collaboration between Great Britain and the U.S. in order to preserve peace in the world." On March 3, Churchill flew again from Florida to confer with Admiral Leahy, this time at the British Embassy, where propped up in bed, smoking a huge cigar, Churchill kept scattering ashes on the manuscript pages scattered all over him. Leahy agreed with the significance of the speech, finding "no fault" with it.
The following day, on March 4, Truman and Churchill left Washington on a special train accompanied by the former's close aides, a half-dozen others from the White House staff, as well as forty-three reporters and photographers. All concerned were in good spirits during the day, which was capped off by a good-natured poker game among Truman, Churchill and a few others.
The next morning, on the 5th, Churchill woke up early and made final changes to his speech, after which was then mimeographed for distribution on board. Truman, upon reading his copy, told Churchill it would do "nothing but good" and surely "make a stir".
The setting for the speech could not have been more ideal that it was when the train arrived to Fulton later that day as the little town was spruced up for the occasion as thousands from all walks of life cheered the motorcade as it went down the main thoroughfare towards the college. After lunch with President McCluer, an academic procession started for the gymnasium. Churchill himself wore the scarlet robes and the plush black cap of Oxford.
The event started with President McCluer introducing President Truman, who in turn introduced Churchill, calling him one of the outstanding men of the ages.
Churchill started his speech with a jocular reference to the name Westminster as "I seem to have heard it before." Then he thanked President Truman for the introduction: "It is also an honor, perhaps almost unique, for a private visitor to be introduced to an academic audience by the President of the United States. Amid his heavy burdens, duties, and responsibilities -- unsought but not recoiled from -- the President has traveled a thousand miles to dignify and magnify our meeting here to-day and to give me an opportunity of addressing this kindred nation, as well as my own countrymen across the ocean, and perhaps some other countries too."
He praised the United States, which stood at the "pinnacle of world power", and called for a closer relationship between Great Britain and the United States in organizing and giving order to the post-war world. This he called for as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism. While he had "a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin", it was his duty to present "certain facts" as "[a] shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory." And thus he came into the part of the speech that was to cause a sensation, speaking the words which came to define the oppression, fear and confrontation of the Cold War, recognizing the growing reality and division between the Soviet Union and the Western powers and describing the division most aptly as an "Iron Curtain":
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia - all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow..."Behind that line, he noted, lay all the capitals of the Central and Western Europe. Countries in front of the iron curtain were in danger from outside by the Soviet Union itself and from within by Communist fifth columns. The Soviets did not want war, but rather the fruits of war, "and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrine." The answer to this threat, according to Churchill, was the United Nations, supported by the whole strength of the English speaking world and all its connections. For he knew the Russians and they admired nothing but strength, nothing for which they had less respect than weakness, and military weakness most of all.
While the audience watching Churchill--especially Truman--approved of the speech by applauding at several points, the immediate reaction of the country was most negative. The Wall Street Journal, though it thought the speech brilliant "with a hard core of indisputable fact", it opined along with other newspapers that America had no need of alliances with any other nation and accused Churchill of poisoning the already difficult relationship between the United States and Russia. In the US Congress three Democratic senators described the speech as "shocking", and Henry Wallace, Truman's predecessor as Roosevelt's Vice President and Secretary of Commerce said: "Mr. Churchill is not speaking for the American people and their government." The British House of Commons largely disapproved of Churchill's speech, with 100 MPs signing a formal motion protesting it. In Moscow, Stalin said it was a "call to war" with the Soviet Union, a "dangerous act calculated to sow the seeds of discord bamong Allied governments and hamper their cooperation."
Truman himself was stunned at the negative reaction and despite all evidence to the contrary disassociated himself with the speech. However, just as Churchill was correct about the threat of Nazism in World War II, he was just as prescient about the Soviet threat. Events have proved him right and paved the way to influencing U.S. policy towards the Soviet Union for the next 40 years, beginning with the Truman Doctrine the following year.
