1 - Winston Churchill

Americans, who believed the Second World War hadbeen fought to change the international system forever,to transcend the past and abolish the bad old world of"power politics." In the shadow of the frightful newpower of the atomic bomb, creating this new age wasseen as vital to survival. Churchill's now famous addressthus was greeted with far more criticism thanpraise.FULTON +50Background and Response to the Fulton AddressChurchill spoke in a climate of increasingly anxiousUS-Soviet relations, as the US was taking early stepsaway from the late President Roosevelt's accommodationistpolicy toward Soviet Russia, which his successorhad generally continued, in the direction of a more confrontationalpolicy. Stalin's "Election" speech of 9 February1946 had created concern in Washington and Above: Churchill delivers his speech, 5 March 1946.London with its emphasis on the opposition between socialismand capitalism, whose internal contradictions,Below: The Daily Worker reacts, 6 March 1946.he said, had precipitated the war and threatened to setoff another. On 15 February, news of a Russian atomicspy ring in Canada became public with the detention of* Have a cigar while I tell yoou>bat a Power for Peace ourtwenty-two persons suspected of espionage. (It had beenUnion would be..."known to the government since September.) Though itwas not public, George Kennan's now famous LongTelegram had been sent to the State Department on 22February and was receiving wide circulation in the government,especially at the behest of Navy SecretaryForrestal. President Truman was among its readers.(Kennan later described the reaction as "nothing lessthan sensational.") 1The first meeting of the UN General Assembly hadrecently ended in London. Secretary of State Byrnes,who had headed the US delegation and was under pressurefor being too soft on the Russians, gave a speech on28 February to the Overseas Press Club at the WaldorfAstoria which signaled a more robust US attitude. In The day before Byrnes spoke, Senator Vandenberg, aan obvious allusion to Russia's refusal to withdraw its Byrnes critic, asked in a Senate speech, "What is Russiatroops from Iran in violation of a wartime agreement up to now?" He, too, urged a stronger US stand but, likeand its role in setting up an autonomous regime in Byrnes, stressed working for peace through the UnitedAzerbaijan, he warned, '". . . we cannot overlook a unilateralgnawing away at the status quo [nor] allow ag-New York Times of 3 March, 1946 headlined its analy-Nations. 3 "The Week in Review" section of the Sundaygression to be accomplished by coercion or pressure or sis, "Is Our Policy Changing?" and James B. Reston'sby subterfuge such as political infiltration." Without article was titled, "Have We a New Foreign Policy? Capitalasks."naming names, he bluntly criticized the occupation ofIran and confiscation of industrial equipment in EasternEurope and Manchuria. A week later, on the day ofChurchill's speech, the State Department made public I n retrospect, it appears Truman was allowingits dispatch of two notes to Moscow protesting Russian Churchill to encapsulate events and crystallize opinionactions in Iran and Manchuria.on behalf of a new policy that was already taking effect.4 Churchill had discussed his speech with TrumanBut Byrnes did not wish to sound too tough. He reassertedRoosevelt's policy, emphasizing the importance at a White House meeting the evening of 10 Februaryof maintaining the "unity of all great powers" and preventing"exclusive blocs or spheres of influence." "We vana, who forwarded his account directly to Truman),(and earlier on 7 February with the US minister in Ha-must live by the Charter," he insisted. "That is the only and also with Byrnes and Bernard Baruch in Floridaroad to peace." 2 on 17 February. (Truman also saw the speech on theFINEST HOUR 89/30