Winston Churchill: Iron Curtain Speech (1946)
Context
As a seasoned politician in the Liberal Party and the British coalition government in 1917 and 1918, Winston Churchill had definite opinions on the rise of Communism in Russia—he wanted it ended. The distinguishing characteristic of Bolshevik Communism as a utopian vision, in his opinion, was its reliance on violence in order to achieve its ends, and this violence had to be curtailed. As Allied troops were sent to the northern Russian ports of Archangel and Murmansk to support the forces in opposition to the Bolshevik Red Army, Churchill insisted that they have a clear purpose: to destroy the Bolsheviks before their ideology and power could spread. Yet Europeans and Americans seemed opposed to the idea, and politicians in the British coalition government dismissed Churchill's concerns. Partly this was because of earlier failures in military strategy perpetuated by Churchill during World War I, which had lessened his reputation for levelheaded decision making; partly...
