Winston Churchill foresaw the Soviets’ aggression, and warned the world in Missouri

March 5 will mark the 75th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s famed “Sinews of Peace” speech. This is one of Churchill’s most important speeches, as he described the “iron curtain” that had descended across Eastern Europe in the immediate wake of the Allied victory in Europe after World War II. In many ways, this speech began the decades-long Cold War that defined the international order of the latter half of the 20th Century. And Missourians should recognize and remember the impact of the speech, because it was delivered in Fulton, and because Missouri’s own President Harry S. Truman played an integral part in bringing Churchill to Missouri.

The details of how Churchill came to Westminster College have been well detailed. In an audacious letter sent in late 1945, Franc L. McCluer, Westminster’s president, asked Churchill if he would offer a campus lecture. Luckily for McCluer and all Missourians, Westminster alumnus Gen. Harry Vaughn was one of Truman’s top military aides. Vaughn took the letter to Truman, who handwrote a note in the margins offering to introduce Churchill before the speech.

Churchill agreed, and in early March 1946, he arrived in the nation’s capital and conferred with the administration about the content of the speech. The president and a handful of close aides, the former prime minister and an entourage of reporters traveled by presidential train to Jefferson City. Churchill and Truman participated in a parade there, and another in Fulton, before arriving at the campus. It was clear that mid-Missouri was welcoming Churchill as the hero of the West, even though he had been voted out of office as World War II was closing.

After the promised introduction by Truman, Churchill gave a speech he had titled “The Sinews of Peace.” In it, he recognized the “special relationship” between Britain and the United States, and advocated vociferously for the success of a nascent world organization, eventually called the United Nations, that was “erected for the prime purpose of preventing war.”

By far the darkest and most famous portion of the speech warned that “a shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory.” In the line that seemed to forecast the coming standoff between two superpowers, Churchill continued: “Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its communist international organization intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies. … From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”

While this has become one of Churchill’s most famous speeches, the initial response was tepid, at best. As this warning was so close to the end of the war, and because the Soviet Union had not overtly displayed its willingness to divide the continent, listeners across the country feared that Churchill was the antagonist, willing to turn away from a wartime ally. Two years later, when the Soviets blockaded Berlin, leading the Berlin airlift, Churchill’s prescience was clear. In time, the speech came to be seen as a declaration of the alliance between the U.S. and the U.K., the emerging post-war world order, and the importance of remaining vigilant in the face of global communism.

Missouri remains a beacon for world leaders who wish to describe and define the global role of the United States. Westminster College is the site of America’s National Churchill Museum, designated by Congress with the help of U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer. The longest contiguous section of the Berlin Wall in North America is a featured attraction, and was dedicated by Ronald Reagan in 1990. Presidents, presidential candidates and presidential hopefuls; humanitarians; international leaders; business magnates; cabinet members; scientists and Nobel Laureates have followed Churchill to Fulton, deep in “flyover country,” to deliver speeches that have impacted the world. Here they speak to preserve freedom and democracy across the globe.

March 5 is a reminder to the world that peace is tenuous, and the sinews of peace must be preserved every day. It is also a reminder that Missouri, far from the nation’s capital, has long played a major role in defining global democratic norms.

Tobias T. Gibson is the John Langton Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. He also serves as chair of the Political Science Department and director of the Security Studies Program.

This story was originally published February 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Winston Churchill foresaw the Soviets’ aggression, and warned the world in Missouri."