The International Churchill Society’s forty-third conference will be held from October 15 to 17, 2026. This year, we recognize the 250th Anniversary of America and commemora...
Hosted by the National Churchill Leadership Center (NCLC) and co-sponsored by the George Washington Univesity (GW) History Department, GW Institute for European, Russian, and Eura...
Finest Hour 186, Fourth Quarter 2019 Page 23 By Kevin Ruane Kevin Ruane is Professor of Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University, an Archives By-Fellow of Churchill Co...
Finest Hour 186, Fourth Quarter 2019 Page 08 By Timothy Riley In July 1945, while on a fishing holiday on Minnesota’s North Star Lake, Westminster College President Franc L. McCl...
Finest Hour 186, Fourth Quarter 2019 Page 34 By Sir Winston S. Churchill Winston Churchill’s views on the Cold War are fairly represented in two different sets of remarks that [&...
Notes for Churchill’s speech at Fulton (5 March 1946). copyright: Churchill Archives Centre...
In November 1945, Churchill was invited to give one of a series of annual lectures at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri. The letter of invitation was annotated by President Truman who offered to introduce Churchill, and therefore guaranteed a high profile event. Churchill’s speech, given on 5 March 1946, was to prove enormously influential. Originally entitled ‘The Sinews of Peace’, it became better known as the ‘Iron Curtain’ speech because of his use of a phrase now in common use. This was Churchill’s first public declaration of the Cold War, in which he warned the western world about the ‘iron curtain’that was descending over Europe, drawn down by the Russians, and called for greater Anglo-US cooperation, in what he called a ‘special relationship’, in the battle against Soviet expansionism. Click to see Churchill give this speech in the presence of US President Harry S. Truman. The speech drew the world's attention to the threat of a powerful Soviet Union and the potential ‘cold war’ between the East and the West. Although the ‘iron curtain’ phrase had been used before, Churchill gave it common currency and in so doing, increased awareness and influenced world policy. Some Russian historians have even dated the beginning of the Cold War from this speech. Read more about Churchill and his role in the Cold War .
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