March 6, 2010

Churchill speech a lesson for the present

By William Horsley
BBC European affairs correspondent

©BBC News

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In his “Iron Curtain” speech, delivered exactly 64 years ago, Winston Churchill brilliantly defined an era. The speech may also have lessons for the present.

It was a heroic but troubled time. The world was in turmoil after the most terrible conflict in human history.

On 5 March 1946 Churchill was no longer the UK’s prime minister but he still enjoyed a giant reputation around the world.

So US President Harry Truman himself travelled 1,000 miles to Fulton, Missouri, to hear Churchill give a speech after receiving an honorary degree at Westminster College there.

It would become one of the most famous speeches of the century.

Read the entire article at BBC News here.

Watch a video clip of the speech and read it in it’s entirety here.