[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 35 (Monday, March 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S2411]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    60TH ANNIVERSARY OF WINSTON CHURCHILL'S IRON CURTAIN SPEECH AND 
                         HONORING SENATOR BAKER

  Mr. FRIST. March 2006 marks the 60th anniversary of what is regarded 
as one of the most influential speeches of the 20th century. March 5, 
1946, Winston Churchill gave his famous ``Iron Curtain'' speech at 
Westminster College, in Fulton, MO. Historians date the beginning of 
the cold war to this speech.
  In this speech Mr. Churchill introduced to the world the phrase 
``Iron Curtain'' to describe the division between Western powers and 
the area controlled by the Soviet Union. This speech not only marked 
the onset of the cold war but drew attention to the unique relationship 
between the United States and Great Britain. This special relationship 
spans three eras from Winston Churchill and FDR to Ronald Reagan and 
Margaret Thatcher and now to George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
  In celebration of this historic event and the special relationship 
between our Nation and Great Britain, the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center 
for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee and the Churchill 
Archives Centre at Cambridge University, the United Kingdom, have come 
together for a stellar international conference and to honor one of 
America's greatest statesmen and one of Tennessee's greatest sons, the 
Honorable Howard H. Baker, Jr.
  This premier occasion has brought together two great universities and 
two great centers, each dedicated to preserving and presenting their 
complementary historical resources. This coming together has formed a 
new partnership for the 21st century and will support an ongoing, 
trans-Atlantic and international educational alliance.
  Here are excerpts from the Iron Curtain speech:

       The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of 
     world power. It is a solemn moment for the American 
     democracy. For with this primacy in power is also joined an 
     awe-inspiring accountability to the future. As you look 
     around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done, 
     but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level 
     of achievement. Opportunity is here now, clear and shining, 
     for both our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter 
     it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of the 
     aftertime.
       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.
       The safety of the world requires a new unity in Europe, 
     from which no nation should be permanently outcast. It is 
     from the quarrels of the strong parent races in Europe that 
     the world wars we have witnessed, or which occurred in former 
     times, have sprung.
       Fraternal association requires not only the growing 
     friendship and mutual understanding between our two vast but 
     kindred systems of society, but the continuance of the 
     intimate relationship . . .
       Beware, I say; time may be short. Do not let us take the 
     course of allowing events to drift along until it is too 
     late. If there is to be a fraternal association of the kind I 
     have described, with all the extra strength and security 
     which both our countries can derive from it, let us make sure 
     that that great fact is known to the world, and that it plays 
     its part in steadying and stabilizing the foundations of 
     peace. There is the path of wisdom. Prevention is better than 
     cure.

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