At Fulton, Missouri, Churchill delivered a memorable speech, where he used descriptive phrases that surprised both Britain and the United States. Prior to his speech, Britain and the United States (U.S) were concerned with their unique post-war economies (Boyer 47). He had all along been grateful to the Soviet Union, for playing a pro-active role in bringing World War II to an end. It was his speech that changed the way in which the Communist East was viewed by the Democratic West.
Being one of the Grand Alliance’s architects, Churchill recognized that its dissolution was a tragic reality. He said this so publicly, something that many in his capacity did not say so plainly. He had foreseen this whereby during the Cairo Conference (1943), he said to Harold Macmillan that he feared the rise of the Soviet Power. He had also stated that he feared the fact that the West did not observe this danger and for this reason, failed to respond to it.
Churchill felt that the dawning conflict had its roots in the Soviet Territorial ambitions. As he put it in his famous speech, “What they desire are the fruits of war, and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines,” (Casey 194). He had read history and he interpreted it in an amazing way. He knew that power and doctrine were not the only reason for the aggression and subversion by the Soviet. In sinister combination, it was conquests’ rationalization, otherwise coveted. The Soviet’s expansion ambitions were being fulfilled, in respect to the Russian czars. The expansion impulse was indeed, being felt in Eastern Europe around the year 1943.
In Churchill’s view, that there was the need for firmness in the West. He thought it was necessary for British Commonwealth to work in close association with America, and to have European Unity. To him, no nation would be an outcast. Somehow, he was anticipating the rapprochement between Germany and France. For firmness, to be there, Churchill warned that American involvement was vital. He did not want a repeat of the catastrophic American-Retreat, from international responsibility, following World War I.
However, Churchill was advocating for peace and not conflict. At the start of his speech, he had made it clear that their duty and their supreme task was to protect the homes of common citizens, from miseries and horrors of another war. Churchill recognized the fact that Russians had their own national interests just like any other nation (Casey 194). Chiefly, they wanted expansion, but not necessarily war. He wanted the war to be prevented permanently and desired understanding between the west and the Russians, which would have been achieved through talks.
Churchill recognized that the U.S was a good associate for Britain. He even made it clear that the U.S was at the pinnacle of world power. He felt the need for the two nations to have a special relationship, because the two were at the moment, the great powers in the English-speaking world. The postwar world needed to be organized and policed and the expansion policies by the Soviet Union had to be rejected. Churchill wanted the common people to be shielded from both tyranny and war. By convincing the US, Churchill knew it would be easy to convince the other English speaking nations to provide forces to the international military squad.
Works Cited
Boyer, Paul. The Iron Curtain: Churchill, America, And the Origins of the Cold War (Book). Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 43, no. 4, 1987, 47-50.
Casey, William J. The Growth, and Strength of the Soviet Union: Forty Years since Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech. Vital Speeches of the Day, vol. 50, no. 7, (1984), 194.
