Download The Iron Curtain Speech

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US History Cold War Packet Document #1
The following are excerpts from a speech given by Winston Churchill on March 5th, 1946
The United States at this time is at the pinnacle [highest point] of world power. It is a great moment for
the American democracy. As you look around, you must feel not only the sense of your great
accomplishments, but also you must feel worried that your accomplishments would fall below a level for
world security. America must be a world leader. The opportunity is here now, clear and shining, for both
our countries. To reject or ignore the problems the world faced prior to the war or may face after the war
would be ill advised.
I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant [brave] Russian people and for my wartime comrade,
Joseph Stalin. There is deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain toward the peoples of Russia. I would hope
what we all accomplished would lead to the establishing of lasting friendships. However, it is my duty to
place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe that may hurt our futures.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic [west/east European borders] an iron curtain has
descended across the continent. Behind that curtain lie all the capitals of Eastern Europe: Warsaw, Berlin,
Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them
lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet
influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of direct control from Moscow [Soviet
Capital]. They have no freedoms.
What is discouraging is that in a great number of countries, far from the Russia and throughout the world,
Communism is established and must work in complete unity and absolute obedience to the directions they
receive from the Soviet Union. Except in the British Commonwealth and in the United States where
Communism has been rejected the Communists parties constitute a growing challenge and peril to
Christian civilization.
I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits [rewards] of war and the
indefinite expansion of their power and Communist ideals.
What we need is a settlement, a way to balance what they are trying to do and the longer this is delayed,
the more difficult it will be and the greater our dangers will become.
From what I have seen of our Russian friends and allies during the war, I am convinced that there is
nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for
weakness, especially military weakness.
Together we must be strong. For that reason the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot
afford to share power with them.