Iron Curtain speech and World War II

After World War II, there were created three different schools of thought on what caused the
war how to avoid another war in Europe.

One of the views blamed nationalism of being the cause of the war and pursued integration as
the solution to keep in peace. Winston Churchill was the responsible for the most famous post-
war statement of this school: “The Sinews of Peace”, speech which took place in March, 1946
and is considered the start of the Cold War. Despite the title, its most widely-quoted sentence
is: ‘From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the
Continent1.’ In his speech, Churchill stated that there were two giant problems: war and
tyranny. While expressing admiration for Stalin and wanted the USSR to be involved in the
United Nations, he denounced the Russian attempts to spread communism as dangerous and
alarming. He also compared the years before Hitler’s rise to power with the present Soviet
threat in Europe and warned not to make the same mistake as in 1919. Churchill’s aim was to
forge a ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK, which he underlined in terms of
culture: “We not only speak the same language, we think the same thoughts”. In 1946
Churchill delivered another famous speech in which he advocated a ‘United States of Europe’2.
After his speech, the perceptions on both sides of the Iron Curtain changed. On the one hand,
the UK and the US had a common enemy: the communism. On the other hand, Stalin accused
him of war mongering and racism, and soviet propaganda subsequently turned against the US
and its allies.

Communism kept spreading rapidly in eastern nations and in March 1947, the US vowed to
help to stop it. President Truman made a speech in which he promised that the US would help
any country that took a stand against communism. It was called the Truman Doctrine.
Meanwhile, tension between soviet zone and the other zones in Berlin grew sharply. One year
later, in 1948, the soviet part of Berlin started to block transport from the Western of Germany
to the American, English and French occupied part of Berlin. This would later be labelled the
‘Berlin Blockade’ and it was lifted after 10 months. During this period, the Western Allies had
to “fly in” food and other goods into their zones of Berlin.

After this event, the first steps in European integration were taken. The US offered financial
assistance to all European nations if countries agreed on a joint programme for economic
reconstruction: The Marshall Plan3, in 1948. USSR forbade Central and Eastern European to
join and this supposed an increase of tensions between US and USSR. Nevertheless, the Plan
was a great success and it helped many European countries to pursue their own national
interests. It contributed to more positive morale in Europe and to political and economic
stability, which helped diminish the strength of domestic communist parties. The U.S. political
and economic role in Europe was enhanced and U.S. trade with Europe boosted.

1
Churchill: ‘Iron Curtain speech’.
2
European Commission: Winston Churchill, calling for a United States of Europe.
3
The George C. Marshall foundation: ‘History of the Marshall Plan’.