Winston Churchill’s Speech “The Iron Curtain” and its impact on the Cold War.
By: Reem AlAsiri 201403492
Winston Churchill, the former Prime Minster of the United Kingdom gave his famous speech at Westminster College on the 5th of March, 1946. His speech may be regarded as the most important speech Churchill has ever delivered. Its passage on the "Iron Curtain" had many impacts on the Western power. Some Russian historians date back the beginning of the Cold War to this Speech.
In Churchill's “The Iron Curtain" speech - which he officially named "the Sinews of Peace"- he proposed that the current situation facing the Western European countries is what he alerted as the Soviet mission of expanding their territory and the intention of the
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The strategies where the proclamation of freedom and the fraternal association of the English-speaking people, in which he emphasized in his speech by “We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world”. It became clear that the purpose of this talk was to start an even closer relationship between the United States and Great Britain-The great powers of the “English –speaking world”.
Churchill then begins to transit into the most notable portion of the speech in which he described the current situation and the tension between the Western nations and the Soviet Union. He warned against the Soviets desire to expanding its nation. He then acknowledged his wartime friend Comrade Stalin, and welcomed the Soviet Union’s position as a leading nation.
It was here however, that Churchill gave his famous phrase “The Iron Curtain” in which he used to explain the great division that happened in Europe between the Soviet influenced Eastern counties and the Western
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These were the lands listed above. Stalin began making Pro communists governments that answered back to him in Moscow.
In his speech, Churchill stood up against Stalin, and thought of it as division between communism and freedom, East and West. He phrased this division in his speech as “An Iron Curtain”.
Churchill then began by listing the threats of communism in Western Europe; he spoke of communist fifth columns in whom he described in his speech as “Communist fifth columns are established and work in complete unity and absolute obedience to the directions they receive from the Communist center.”
He then makes a statement that now war can find any nation with the threat of communism. However, he then states that a new war is inevitable to happen, his reason was as he stated in his speech “I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and
For thirty years, an iron curtain lay across Germany. This iron curtain was called the Berlin Wall, and it represented the divide between East and West Germany. It also represented the loss of East Germany’s freedom and democracy. The Berlin Wall separated families and friends. This resulted in children growing up without a father and wives losing all communication with their husbands. The Berlin Wall poorly affected many people and businesses, and caused an ugly dent in Germany’s history.
The Purpose of this speech is to gain support for a freedom movement from the British government. One can see this when he states, ?Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the
In a total war, the home front must be entirely united to continue to fight and fund a war effort, and Churchill appeals to unity and patriotism. He asks the people of Britain to give what Churchill himself will be offering ‘“blood, toil, tears, and sweat”’ (32). If the Prime Minister can give his everything to fight in the war, it encourages the audience to want to participate as well. Churchill continues to appeal to unity through his use of words like ‘we’ and ‘our’ to unite the country with the government as they fight for one cause. By creating a ‘team’, they can effectively rally the audience into action. The public opinion may believe that the Germans are unstoppable, but Winston’s emotionally charged words that with total effort and war from all fronts with the support of God, the feat can be achieved (35). Because of the war, the Prime Minister conveys the necessity for “victory; victory at all costs; victory in spirt of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival” (38-40). By bringing the risk of destruction of the country should they fail, it further persuades the audience to want to give their all so they can win the war. After riling up the crowd with the emotionally charged pathos arguments, Churchill closes with a final remark: ‘“Come then, let us go
The era that preceded the formation of the Soviet Union was earmarked with social unrest, famine, and failed governments. After many struggles, many smaller soviet republics joined to form a large conglomerate nation, known as the Soviet Union in 1922. Vladimir Lenin, leader at the time, replaced the failing capitalist government with a communist government. . At the end of WWII, most of Eastern and Central Europe’s countries were being occupied by the soviet army. They came to be controlled by the Soviet government and pulled back behind an “iron Curtain”. Winston Churchill’s famed Iron curtain remark refers to the countries that fell under the spell of the Soviet Union and shut out the western world ways of capitalism. The countries of
In President Reagan’s speech regarding the Berlin wall entitled “Address at Brandenburg Gate” delivered on June 12th, 1987, Reagan takes the position as the rhetor with the sole purpose of convincing the city of Berlin to unite and get rid of the wall separating the city in two. The wall is described by Reagan multiple times and is described to be both a physical and non-physical wall. Most of the city is separated by the physical wall and those that aren’t are heavily guarded and prevent travel to the other side. The discourse was intended to not only be heard by the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, but by most of Europe and North America. The exigency in Reagan’s
The two pieces capture the devastation of what is coming if something is not done to prevent the spread of communism. They caveat each other as at first identifying the threat to come and methods to initially prevent it from inflicting further damage, then further refinement seeing clearly the ways to conduct and protect world affairs and interests. In summary these speeches given by great leaders of their time identified and led in conducting business in protecting the world
of Germany as if it belonged to Russia. He allowed only the communist party and
An “iron curtain” of Communism spread over Eastern Europe as the post-World War II world tried to re-build Germany and Easter Europe. As the dictator Joseph Stalin sealed off the Eastern Bloc, the rest of Europe began to re-build under a democratic rule. This re-building continued and the USSR continued to keep their “totalitarian” hold on the East. As the Cold War continued the battle that was being fought soon became the battle between the two world super powers. This led to many conflicts and continued up until finally in 1989 the Berlin Wall was taken down reuniting Western and Eastern Germany and bringing down the “iron curtain“ that shaded the East from freedom.
In Berlin, the Iron Curtain had many purposes. It was there to protect, to separate and to enforce a way of life for East Berliners. Firstly, The Wall gave meaning to people’s lives in different ways. It defined where they were to go, who they were to see and who they were to be. For the countless Stasi and informers, it gave them a purpose and an importance in society, and after The Wall came down, that purpose was lost and yearned for. Secondly, The Wall and the controlling ways of the Stasi loomed over the lives of East Berliners, and its implementation was just one of many extreme measures to minimalise Capitalism and encourage Communism. Thirdly, although The Wall
His life is an example of his spirit, overcoming the difficulties with which he was presented, and making himself stronger as a result of it. Churchill was a more than just a great speaker though; he was a great man and a great leader as well. He took over as Prime Minister of Britain during one of the most trying times ever to come upon the country, and led his country to eventual victory over their adversaries. The analysis of his speech allows one to come closer to understanding the true rhetorical genius of the man known as Churchill. In particular,
The spread of communism led to the so-called Iron Curtain, named by Winston Churchill. It divided communist Eastern Europe from non-communist Western Europe.
According to Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, “The Russian-dominated Polish government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of million Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place.” The Russian controlled Polish government has illegally kicked out millions of Germans without a reasonable reason. The USSR wanted to expand their territory as well as their military by kicking the Germans out of the country. The USSR may say that they did this because they wanted to improve their country and wanted to be more protective by increasing their military protection. According to Stalin’s comments on his policies in Eastern Europe, “How can anyone who has not taken leave of his senses describe these peaceful aspiration of the Soviet Union as expansionist tendencies on the part of our state?” This quote states that the Soviets only want a military and territorial expansion and they didn’t wanted to cause a war. However, if they want to take someone else’s land or territory, doesn’t that mean that they are going to fight for it or give up something in return to it? The Soviets didn’t give up anything in return to it, which means they eventually chose the other choice. Stalin’s desire to expand its military was a selfish idea and he didn’t care about other countries when planning the
He starts off by calling socialism independence and something that has liberated the Russian people. Stalin like Hitler uses the nation’s nationalistic feelings to secure their allegiance to his totalitarian government. His main concern is to keep his government from crumbling. He believes that the only way to keep communism from deteriorating is to build up Russia’s socialist economy. He acknowledges that Russia is behind the western countries by a good fifty years and emphasizes how important it is that these industrial mangers make fast advancements. He ends with some chilling words. He says, “Either we do it or they crush us.” At first it seems he has no idea how prophetic his words truly are because his buildup in industry is going to play a crucial part in how Russia is able to remain unoccupied by Germany. On the other hand, it is the Age of Anxiety and therefore Stalin may have given this address now because he could already see in 1931, that another war with Germany was inevitable. Stalin’s motivation was to keep Russia a soviet independent country in order so he can continue to be the Soviet Union’s dictator. He uses the people’s nationalism to fuel an economic and industrial revolution that will save the Soviet’s in World War
Ronald Reagan, in his speech, (“Berlin Wall”, 1987), the former governor and President of the United States and at the time of the Cold War, “ the most magnetic public figure in the nation”(encyclopedia.com) elucidates to his audience the consequences of residing under the influence of the Soviet Union. Reagan supports his assertion through the use of various rhetorical devices to generate logos, ethos, and pathos. His purpose is to incite a feeling of an injustice done to the people of Berlin and Soviet Allies and to bring down the Berlin Wall as “the most visible symbol of the decades-long Cold War”(History.com) between the Americans and the Soviets during the Cold War. Reagan writes in perfervid tone generated toward the people of Berlin and other Soviet allies in hopes of bringing the Cold War to an end and it is reported by CBS News that he successfully “bolstered the morale of the pro-democracy movement in East Germany”(Brinkley).
It was in a speech made by the 33rd President of the United States of America, Harry Truman in which he announced a policy that would undoubtedly shape the way his nation would be looked at for much of the century (or at least the half of it that remained). It was in this speech that he announced his very own Doctrine, intended to "to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”, to save the “free peoples” of Eastern Europe from the monster known as Communism, a political ideology born out of the Russian Revolution of 1917, that had spread somewhat like a plague, throughout the lands in the East, which Stalin and