Churchill's "Iron Curtain Speech"
On May 8, 1945, the day when fascist Germany announced its unconditional surrender, British Prime Minister Churchill called Stalin and expressed his hope that after defeating the Nazi tyrant, "* * * would walk together on a victorious and peaceful sunshine avenue".
Churchill said in his memoirs that there was a "broad atmosphere of goodwill" between the West and the Soviet Union. However, it was in this "friendly atmosphere" that Churchill called US President Truman on May 12, saying that he was "very worried about the situation in Europe". He said that Russia "misinterpreted Yalta's decision, their attitude towards Poland, and their overwhelming power in Balkan countries except Greece ... coupled with their * * * producer tactics in many other countries, especially their ability to maintain huge military strength for a long time in vast areas. ..... they will pull down an iron curtain in the frontier area. "
Nearly 1 months later, on March 5, 1946, Churchill gave a speech in Fulton, Missouri, USA. One of them was widely quoted later: "From Szczecin in the Baltic Sea to Trieste on the Adriatic Sea, an iron curtain across the European continent has come down. Behind this line, there are the capitals of ancient countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia-all these famous cities and their residents are all within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union ... "
Fulton's speech publicly and clearly signaled the cold war, indicating that western countries have begun to regard the Soviet Union as the greatest threat. Stalin hit back in a conversation on March 13th, saying that Churchill was "trying to spread the seeds of disputes among allies" and "calling for war with the Soviet Union".