January 20, 2026

The Hottest Ticket in Town, 1946

By Donald P. Lofe, Jr.

President and Chief Transformation Officer and Churchill Fellow, Westminster College
Director, International Churchill Society Board

On a college campus in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill delivered a speech that did not merely describe a new global reality. It defined one. “The Sinews of Peace” address, later known simply as the Iron Curtain speech, marked a turning point in American history, in global leadership, and in the moral clarity required of democratic societies emerging from war into uncertainty.

Eighty years later, that moment still matters. Not because it belongs to the past, but because it continues to shape the present.

At Westminster College, where America’s National Churchill Museum stands across campus from where Churchill spoke, we see this truth every day. Students, scholars, military leaders, diplomats, and citizens from around our country and world, come to Fulton not out of nostalgia, but out of necessity. They come because Churchill still speaks to the questions we are asking now.

Churchill and America at a Defining Moment
Churchill’s relationship with America was not abstract. It was personal, political, and profoundly consequential. In Fulton, he spoke as a wartime leader who understood that peace required vigilance, alliance, and moral seriousness. He appealed directly to American responsibility, urging engagement rather than retreat, leadership rather than complacency.

That message resonates powerfully as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary. The theme of “Churchill & America” is not simply historical framing. It is an invitation to reflect on what American leadership has meant, and what it must mean again.

Churchill understood America’s potential before many Americans did. He recognized that democratic leadership is not self-sustaining. It must be taught, renewed, and defended. The Iron Curtain speech was not a warning delivered from afar. It was a call made on from America’s heartland, to the American people, at a moment when choices still lay ahead.

A Campus as a Civic Space
Westminster College is not simply the site of a famous speech. It is a living academic community. That distinction matters deeply. Churchill chose to speak at a college because colleges and universities are places where ideas are tested, debated, and passed forward. They are where young people learn not what to think, but how to think.

Each year, I have the privilege to meet students who walk onto the Westminster campus with a sense of awe. They sit where Churchill stood. They look out at the same space. And they ask themselves what it means to lead in moments of uncertainty. They are not reenacting history. They are preparing for responsibility.

I am inspired not only by our students, but by the leaders who come here for the same reason. Military officers. Public servants. Educators. Diplomats. Statesmen and Stateswomen. They come to Fulton because they wanted to follow in Churchill’s footsteps, not literally, but intellectually and morally. They wanted to understand how leadership is forged when the stakes are real and the outcomes uncertain.

America’s National Churchill Museum and a National Calling
America’s National Churchill Museum carries a responsibility that extends beyond Westminster College. It is the steward of a national moment. The Iron Curtain speech was not merely a British intervention in world affairs. It was a defining moment in American civic history.

For that reason, we are working to elevate the museum’s status as a national landmark. Not for prestige, but for purpose. The site deserves recognition because of what happened here, and because of what continues to happen here.

The museum is not a static repository. It is a center for education, dialogue, and leadership formation. Through exhibitions, programs, and partnerships, we connect Churchill’s legacy to contemporary challenges and stories.

Becoming a national landmark would reflect the truth that Fulton is not a footnote. It is a chapter. One that continues to be written.

The Hottest Ticket in Town, Then and Now
In 1946, the hottest ticket in town was not a concert or a championship game. It was a speech. People traveled to Fulton because they sensed something important was about to be said.

Eighty years later, the demand remains. When we gather to mark a milestone anniversary of the Iron Curtain speech, we are not just staging a commemoration. We are convening a conversation. One that asks how democracies recognize emerging threats, how alliances are sustained, and how leaders speak hard truths before consensus exists.

Churchill did not offer comfort in Fulton. He offered clarity. That is why the speech endures. And that is why it continues to draw people who are serious about leadership and citizenship.
As we mark its 80th anniversary, and as America reflects on its own beginnings, we are reminded that leadership is not inherited. It is chosen. Again and again.

That is why Churchill matters. That is why Fulton matters. And that is why the steps taken on the campus of Westminster College still echo far beyond Missouri. We hope you will consider joining us in Fulton on March 5-7 as we commemorate these events.