Shadow of world catastrophe: Russia’s ‘expansive tendencies’
6 March 1946
The grave danger of catastrophe in which the world now stands and his suggestions for averting it formed the principal theme of Mr Churchill’s speech in Missouri yesterday.
The danger to which he pointed was the “expansive and proselytising tendencies” to which no one knew the limits, if any, of Soviet Russia and its Communist International organisation. Communist fifth columns threatened Christian civilisation. He did not believe Russia wanted war and stressed the need of a good understanding with her. But he made these suggestions:
The immediate formation of an international air force under the United Nations Organisation.
A close, fraternal association between the British empire and the United States, including the joint use of naval and military bases.
Time was short if the world was not to return to the dark ages or the stone age “on the gleaming wings of science.”
Shield against war and tyranny
I am glad to come to Westminster College this afternoon, and am complimented that you should give me a degree. The name “Westminster” is somehow familiar to me. I seem to have heard of it before. Indeed, it was at Westminster that I received a very large part of my education in politics, dialectic, rhetoric, and one or two other things. In fact we have both been educated at the same, or similar, or, at any rate, kindred establishments.
It is also an honour, perhaps almost unique, for a private visitor to be introduced to an academic audience by the president of the United States. Amid his heavy burdens, duties, and responsibilities – unsought but not recoiled from – the president has travelled a thousand miles to dignify and magnify our meeting here to-day and to give me an opportunity of addressing this kindred nation, as well as my own countrymen across the ocean, and perhaps some other countries too. The president has told you that it is his wish, as I am sure it is yours, that I should have full liberty to give my true and faithful counsel in these anxious and baffling times.
…
We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the leading nations of the world. We welcome her flag upon the seas. Above all, we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the Atlantic. It is my duty however, for I am sure you would wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.
From Stettin 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, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, 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 many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.
This is an edited extract. Read the speech in full
Editorial: After Missouri
11 March 1946
Mr Churchill has the misfortune as well as the advantage of being Mr Churchill. When he sets out some ideas that have been a commonplace for a generation they suddenly become suspect, for is not the impenitent man an “Imperialist,” is he not a Tory, and did he not once fulminate against Bolshevism? But really Mr Churchill in his Missouri speech did not say much more than most English statesmen have said and have certainly practised, for the last forty years. American policy, as Mr Lippmann told his countrymen, was based for a century on the British Navy. British foreign policy for fifty years has assumed a special relationship between us and the United States. In the last war we have been closer than ever before since the Revolution; we were partners in arms and partners in setting up the new machinery of peace.
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Churchill’s speech “poisonous and hate-filled”
12 March 1946
Pravda, organ of the Russian Communist party, on Sunday published a long summary of Mr Churchill’s speech at Fulton and a leading article strongly attacking it. The article, which appeared under the headline “Churchill Waves the Gun,” was broadcast three times by Moscow radio. Pravda wrote:
‘While the war was in progress, while mortal danger was threatening Britain and Europe, Churchill not once but many times pointed out the outstanding role of the USSR. Then he pretended to be the friend of the Soviet People and swore on the faithfulness of the Soviet-British friendship as on the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition. But the danger passed, the mortal Hitlerite danger which hung over Europe and Britain disappeared – and Churchill again became himself. He can now give vent to his real feelings, which he was suppressing during all these war years, adroitly hiding his intentions and plans, hostile to the Soviet people.’
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