May 15, 2017
This is a PDF transcript of a rebroadcast of a radio speech by Sir Winston Churchill on March 5, 1946. The dramatic timing of the speech was that the Soviet Union was increasing its control of Eastern Europe following World War Two. It was also the first public speech that used the expression, “The Iron Curtain”.
This speech is part two of a two-part series featuring Mr. Churchill speaking about the beginning of war. The last episode featured him speaking of the beginning of World War Two and the crisis for England. This speech, officially named the Sinews of Peace or more often referred to as the Iron Curtain speech, announced that the Cold War had already begun with the aggressions by the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. Churchill sought to alert leaders in the U.S. and the world that war had resumed in Europe even before the end of World War Two. He called upon the nations to confront the Soviet Union before it expanded its conquests to include more nations in Europe or elsewhere in the world. Unlike in World War Two where little was effectively done to stop the spread of the Nazis early in the war, Churchill called on the world to not wait to confront the Soviets at this early stage of the Cold War.