Winston
Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech
Winston
Churchill's "Sinews of Peace" speech was delivered at Westminster
College with the aim of charting out the relations among the Allies after World
War 2. The speech was delivered in the US because of the country’s crucial role
in winning the war and consequent emergence of the US as an undisputed world
superpower. Moreover having lost the British elections, the wartime prime
minister’s words had lost some traction in his homeland, the former superpower.
Indeed the US was to address Churchill’s concerns by enacting the Truman
Doctrine two years later that was to later lead to independence for the Baltic
States (Encyclopaedia Britannica, undated). The cold war pitting US (and NATO)
versus Russia was to last forty six years.
Churchill’s
speech aimed to invigorate the British-American alliance and to chart out the
alliance’s direction in the face of increasingly cold relations with Soviet
Union, a former ally. This cooling relationship can be traced to Stalinism and Russia
winning the “Great Patriotic War” during World War 2. Having tasted the “fruits
of war” after defeating Germany to regain its lost territories and extend into
new ones to be in control of most of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union put up
the “Iron Curtain” – military tanks – seemingly with a view to protecting and
expanding its territories and spreading the communist ideology.
This
flew in the face of the Allies’ principles that included self-determination as
captured by the League of Nations and championed during World War 2 (Encyclopaedia
Britannica, undated). Notably, Woodrow Wilson had listed self-determination as
an important objective in a postwar world. Hence the Allies championed
self-determination as a means to achieve peace during and after the war.
Stalin’s
government aim to expand its powers with a view to spreading its socialist
doctrines was likely to make world peace as envisioned by the British-American
alliance elusive. Churchill hence speaks about Stalin’s tyrannical tendencies
versus a person’s free will to political choice. He posits the latter as one of
the ways for “the permanent prevention of war and the establishment of
conditions of freedom and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries” and
the former as a challenge that must be dealt with pronto (The Churchill Centre,
1946).
By
acknowledging “Russia’s need to be secure on her western borders”, Churchill is
alive to Germany’s aggression, which was the cause of the two world wars.
Indeed he is sympathetic to Russia’s plight, welcoming the country “to her rightful
place among the leading nations of the world” and encouraging the “growing
contacts” between Russians and the alliance people (The Churchill Centre, 1946). So if the “Iron Curtain” was solely a
deterrent to Germany’s invasion, Churchill would seemingly have no qualms about
it.
But
he notes that the “Iron Curtain” locks in Eastern Europe laying the foundation for
unfettered Russian expansion of its powers and doctrines. Notably, Churchill
qualifies this as Russia’s pursuit of “fruits of war” rather than a “desire for
war” (The Churchill Centre, 1946). He is consistent in viewing Russia’s defense
of its western border as moral but its tyranny in Eastern Europe as immoral.
Churchill
does not advocate for war with Russia by saying that the Russia’s admire
strength. Rather he is advocating for the building of a strong United Nations
with a peacekeeping force to act as a deterrent to the rise of fascism, communism
and other doctrines and conditions that may seemingly lead to war.
References
The
Churchill Centre, (1946). The Sinews of Peace. http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1946-1963-elder-statesman/120-the-sinews-of-peace.
Accessed August 5, 2016.
Encyclopaedia
Britannica, (undated). Self-determination. https://www.britannica.com/topic/self-determination.
Accessed August 5, 2016.
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