Churchill and the Iron Curtain

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

‘From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.’ These words - spoken by Winston Churchill on 5 March 1946 to an audience including President Truman in Fulton, Missouri - can be seen as both a symptom and a catalyst of the collapse of relations between the western allies and the Soviet Union. But what drove Churchill to make this speech? What can it tell us about the relationships between Churchill, Stalin and Truman? How did it intertwine with the fates of countries such as Iran and Turkey? And what impact does its shadow have today? Dr Warren Dockter is the author of ‘Winston Churchill and the Islamic World’, and editor of ‘Winston Churchill at the Telegraph’. In this anniversary episode he speaks to James about this remarkable speech.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone welcome back to the history hit World Wars podcast I'm your host James
0:03.7	Rogers and it's remarkable to think but 75 years ago this month in March
0:08.2	1946 Churchill gave his famous sinews of peace speech, otherwise known as his Iron Curtain speech.
0:16.3	It's no coincidence that this was given in the United States, that President Truman was in the audience,
0:22.4	and it was all about shaping the agenda for the emerging Cold War.
0:26.7	As Churchill said, from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,
0:31.7	an iron curtain has descended across the continent.
0:36.0	But what was going through Churchill's mind at the time?
0:38.8	It hadn't been long since he had been surprisingly ousted from power, and he still saw himself as a world leader setting a foreign policy
0:47.2	agenda. He would be again in 1951 when he was elected but he didn't know this at the time.
0:53.2	So what was Churchill up to?
0:55.0	Well, to tell us more, we have world-leading Churchill expert,
0:58.8	Dr Warren Doctor.
1:00.4	What he doesn't know isn't worth knowing he's been through all the archives and believe me
1:05.4	What he has to say about Churchill is truly fascinating. So here's. Warren Doctor. Hi Warren, thank you so much for coming on the World Wars. How you doing today?
1:29.4	Doing very well, sir. Thanks for having me, James.
1:32.3	Not a problem at all.
1:34.0	Congratulations on your new position, by the way.
1:36.0	You are now the CEO of the East Tennessee Historical Society, is that correct?
1:42.0	That is correct. I'm very, very pleased to be back home in my
1:44.8	hometown of Knoxville and working with our museum and in our archives and just
1:50.9	bringing East Tennessee history to the world which as you know has not been my specialty
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.