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Hello, my name's David Rundsenman and this is past-present future, the History of Ideas podcast.

Today it's the return of our occasional series, now and then,

with Robert Saunders, in which we discuss significant political anniversaries. In today's episode,

we're talking about a speech that was given 80 years ago last week. It helped inaugurate the Cold

War, and it is known for one phrase in particular.

It's Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech.

There's so much more in it than just those two words.

It is my duty to place before you certain fact about the present position in Europe.

From Steckin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.

Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of central

and eastern Europe. Warsaw, Burlian, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and

Snipeia. 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 the increasing measure

of control from Moscow.

That is the best known passage by far in a speech that Winston Churchill gave 80 years ago this month,

80 years ago last week on the 5th of March,

1946. It's known as the Iron Curtain speech, though the title Churchill gave it was the

sinews of peace speech, which hasn't lasted in quite the same way. He gave it in Fulton,

Missouri at a little liberal arts college called Westminster College.

Part of the, I assume, inspiration behind the invitation was a joke that Churchill made at the beginning of his speech, which is he too gained his political education in a place called Westminster.

He was introduced in this tiny out-of-the-way place by the American president, Harry Truman.

...