Iron Curtain Winston Churchill's "Iron Term Paper

S. And Great Britain in order to "curtail any and all future advances into central Europe while under Soviet rule" (Bradley, 376). Although at this time Churchill was no longer Prime Minister of Great Britain, his words echoed the sentiments and fears of all Americans, especially those of President Truman who after the speech acknowledged that Churchill had addressed one of the most important problems of post-war America, namely, that the Soviet Union was a great threat to the security of the United States, particularly if and when the Soviet Union gained access to the atomic bomb.

The term "iron curtain" was first coined by Churchill in his speech to the faculty and students of Westminster College on that cold and blustery day in March of 1946. Churchill stated that beginning roughly at the Baltic Sea and extending into the Adriatic, "an iron curtain has descended across the continent," and that all the major capitals of Europe, such as Warsaw in Poland, Berlin, Vienna in Austria and Budapest in Hungary, now lie within "what I must call the Soviet sphere, where all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high degree and in some cases, an increasing measure of control from Moscow" (Halsall, Internet).Thus, Churchill's "iron curtain" speech made it clear to all Americans and the allies of the United States that the influence of the Soviet Union in Europe must be halted in order to assure that "the high roads of the future" remain open, "not only for us but for all and not only for our time but for a century to come" (Halsall, Internet).

Bibliography

Bradley, Harold Whitman. The United States from 1865. New York: Scribner's, 1973.

Halsall, Paul. "Winston S. Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' Speech." Internet. March 5, 1996.

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