Cold War and Long Sunset
LIFTING THE IRON CURTAIN
Though out of office in Britain,
Churchill retained huge prestige and influence on the international
stage. In March 1946, at the encouragement of President Harry Truman,
he traveled to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, to speak.
His speech was a call for closer Anglo-American cooperation in
the post-war world, but it is now best remembered for its warnings
about the threat of Soviet expansionism, eloquently captured in
the phrase "Iron Curtain."
Churchill continued to speak out on the great issues--the Cold
War, the atomic bomb, and European unity--always stressing the
importance of a "special relationship" between the British Empire
and the United States. Then, in October 1951, the Conservative
Party won the general election, and he returned as Prime Minister.
During his second premiership Churchill worked hard to strengthen
Anglo-American relations, retain British global influence, and,
above all, initiate a summit meeting with Stalin's successors in
the Kremlin. He felt that strong negotiation might obtain an end
to the nuclear arms race and establish détente in the Cold
War. In this goal he was frustrated, partly by his own failing
health, partly by the opposition of President Dwight Eisenhower
and other Western leaders who favored a harder line against communism
and the Soviet Union, and partly by the new Soviet leaders who
resisted détente.
Acme.
Churchills
Arrive in U.S. for Vacation, 1946.
Copyprint.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (246)
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Returning to America
Churchill's 1946 trip to the United States mixed business
and pleasure. After arriving on January 14, he renewed old
friendships, painted, swam in the ocean, and visited Cuba.
He also lobbied for an American reconstruction loan for Britain,
began negotiations for arrangements to publish his wartime
memoir, and made a series of speeches on important topics.
He and Clementine are shown here as they disembark from the
Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth in New York.
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Churchill and Eisenhower
After his trip to Fulton, Missouri, Churchill, accompanied
by Clementine and General Eisenhower (then Chief of Staff
of the U.S. Army), went by train to Richmond, Virginia. There
he addressed the Virginia General Assembly.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
and Winston Churchill,
1946.
Photograph.
Prints and Photographs Division (248)
LC-USZ62-65039
[Digital ID# cph 3b12604]
|
MP3 - RealPlayer*
(*requires free
RealPlayer
software)
Winston Churchill and
Harry Truman
Speaking at Fulton, Missouri,
March 5, 1946.
Sound disc.
Motion Picture,
Broadcasting and
Recorded Sound Division (252) |
Iron Curtain Speech
Controversial in many quarters, Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech
brought to worldwide public attention the division in Europe
and the beginnings of the Cold War: "From Stettin in the
Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended
across the Continent." Behind that line was most of Central
and Eastern Europe. He called for a firm, unified stand against
Soviet encroachments: "There is nothing they admire so much
as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less
respect than for weakness, especially military weakness."
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Churchill and George Washington
Arriving at the Virginia state capitol during a rainstorm,
Churchill paused in the Rotunda to view a statue of George
Washington, in whose armies some of Churchill's ancestors
had fought during the American Revolution. Speaking to the
Virginia General Assembly, Churchill repeated the call he
had made earlier in his "Iron Curtain" speech: "Above all,
among the English-speaking peoples, there must be the union
of hearts based upon conviction and common ideals. That is
what I offer. That is what I seek."
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Associated Press.
Rain-spattered Churchill
Gazes at Statue, 1946.
Copyprint.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (253)
|
Winston Churchill.
Speech
to the Virginia General Assembly,
March 8, 1946.
Typescript.
Manuscript Division (254)
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"Cradle of the Great Republic"
Shown here is the emended reading copy, in Churchill's characteristic "psalm
form," of his March 8, 1946, speech to the Virginia General
Assembly. He referred to his forthcoming visit to the restored
colonial town of Williamsburg: "This was the cradle of the
Gt. Republic in which more than 150 years afterwards the
strong champions of freedom were found to have been nursed."
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Churchill and Truman Arrive at Fulton
President Harry Truman and Churchill are shown arriving
in Fulton, Missouri, where Churchill gave his "Iron Curtain" speech
at Westminster College. Many people around the world, including
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, objected to Churchill's call
for a unified approach to halt communist aggression. Although
Truman would later deny having had advance knowledge of the
speech's controversial content, there is some evidence to
indicate that he was shown a mimeographed copy while on board
the train carrying them both to Missouri.
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Acme Telephoto.
On
the Campus Grounds, 1946.
Copyprint.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (256)
|
Associated Press.
Churchill
Places Wreath on Grave, 1946.
Photograph.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (259)
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Goodbye to an Old Friend
Churchill paid his respects at the grave of his wartime
colleague Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park, New York, on
March 12, 1946. Roosevelt's widow, Eleanor Roosevelt, stands
to his right.
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Truman and Churchill
The personal rapport between Truman and Churchill after
Fulton was very close. They often exchanged handwritten letters
and addressed one another as Harry and Winston. In this letter,
written to thank Churchill for his gift of the first volume
of his war memoirs, Truman refers to his election campaign
as a "terrible political 'trial by fire'." He mentions the
defeat of Nazism and fascism and talks of Communism as the "next
great problem."
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President Harry S Truman to
Winston Churchill,
July 10, 1948.
Page 2 - Page
3 - Page 4
Holograph letter.
Churchill Papers,
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge, U.K. (261)
TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE |
Za Prochnyi mir! Protiv
Podzhigatelei Novoi Voiny!
[For a stable peace! Against those
who would ignite a new war], 1949.
Poster.
Prints and Photographs Division (269)
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A Communist View
1949 saw the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), designed to confront the possibility of communist
aggression with Western unity and firmness. Churchill favored
the new organization, which he said indicated "a very considerable
advance in opinion as far as the United States are concerned." This
Soviet poster shows stalwart marchers for peace--"Against
those who would ignite a new war"--as an alarmed Churchill
and moneybag-clutching Uncle Sam look on.
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Old Friends In A New Role
The leaders of NATO's newly created military arm, the Allied
Command Europe, were taken from the ranks of the coalition
that had won World War II in the west. The first Supreme
Allied Commander, Europe, was American General Dwight D.
Eisenhower; his British Deputy was Field Marshal Bernard
Law Montgomery. They are shown here at a reunion of the British
Eighth Army on October 19,1951. Churchill, leaning across
a seemingly disgruntled Eisenhower, would again become Britain's
Prime Minister five days later.
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Acme.
Old Friends
Get Together, 1951.
Photograph.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (279)
|
Edwin Marcus.
New Year Callers,
1952.
Used Online Courtesy of the Marcus Family.
Cartoon Drawings Collection,
Prints and Photographs
Division (280)
LC-USZ62-100017
[Digital ID# acd 2a10549]
|
Back to Washington
Early in 1952, the newly reinstalled British Prime Minister
once again crossed the Atlantic to confer with the U.S. President.
Churchill's visit was seen by one cartoonist as merely one
of a host of different problems facing Harry Truman, including
economic troubles, difficulties within NATO, the dangers
of the atomic age, the perennial entanglements in the Middle
East, and racial integration in the United States. The Korean
War, which had begun in 1950, was not in the front rank.
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With the President-elect
In January 1953, during yet another trip to the United States,
Churchill met with President-elect Eisenhower and with their
mutual friend, Bernard Baruch (center). Eisenhower
found Churchill "as charming and interesting as ever," but
also "showing the effects of the passing years." He resisted
what he felt was Churchill's attempt to establish closer
Anglo-American ties than the current international situation
warranted. Churchill, in turn, resisted Eisenhower's pleas
for stronger British leadership in securing European unity.
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Associated Press.
Meeting
of Three Old Friends, 1953.
Photograph.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (282)
NYWT&S 2657F
|
United Press.
"Irish
Minute Men" Picket Churchill, 1953.
Photograph.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (283)
NYWT&S 1016997
|
"Winston Go Back"
While highly regarded in the United States, Churchill's
popularity was by no means universal. As Churchill met with
Eisenhower in Bernard Baruch's New York City apartment (January
1953), picketers from a group called the "Irish Minute Men" demonstrated
outside.
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At the British Embassy
Churchill visited Washington early in 1953, shortly before
the end of Harry S Truman's presidency. Here he is shown
pinning a flower onto Truman's lapel before a dinner at the
British Embassy in Washington. After dinner Churchill discussed
one of the most pressing questions of the day--the problem
of safely rearming Germany, within the context of NATO and
European military integration, as a bulwark against a possible
Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Churchill referred to
the proposed multilateral force of the European Defense Community
as a "sludgy amalgam," which he thought would be less effective
than a coalition of national armies.
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Associated Press.
A
Flower For the President, 1953.
Photograph.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (284)
NYWT&S 123
|
United Press.
Hail
and Farewell, 1953.
Photograph.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (288)
|
Bermuda Conference
After several vicissitudes, including a debilitating stroke,
Churchill met President Eisenhower and French Premier Joseph
Laniel at the Bermuda Conference in December 1953. Churchill
as always called for greater Anglo-American solidarity, but
he was opposed to Eisenhower's professed willingness to use
atomic weapons should the Communists once again launch an
attack in Korea. This photograph shows the two leaders at
the end of the meeting, as Eisenhower left Bermuda for New
York.
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Churchill's Desire to Meet with New Soviet Leaders
In December 1953 President Eisenhower, Prime Minister Churchill,
and French Premier Joseph Laniel met for an international
summit in Bermuda. This was Churchill's brainchild and reflected
his preference for face-to-face talks on big issues. In the
aftermath of Stalin's death, and in light of the development
of the hydrogen bomb, Churchill wanted Eisenhower to consider
a meeting with the new Soviet leadership. Churchill's hopes,
thwarted by Eisenhower until after Churchill's retirement,
are touched on in this telegram.
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Sir Winston Churchill to
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
November 12, 1953.
Telegram.
Churchill Papers,
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge, U.K. (288.1)
© Crown copyright 1953,
Archival Reference # CHUR 6/3A/83
|
President Dwight D.
Eisenhower
to Sir Winston Churchill,
March 22, 1955.
Page 2 - Page
3 - Page 4
Typescript letter.
Churchill Papers,
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge, U.K. (290)
|
Comrades-in-Arms
Churchill's resignation of the premiership and his accompanying
withdrawal from public life sparked this letter of reminiscence
from President Eisenhower. The two old soldiers had been
comrades-in-arms since 1941.
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Anglo-American Brotherhood
Churchill must have produced this draft for a letter to
President Eisenhower on one of his last days in 10 Downing
Street, as he left office on April 5, 1955. It sets out his
reasons for resigning--old age and failing health--and ends
with a firm statement of his belief in Anglo-American brotherhood
and opposition to communism.
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Sir Winston Churchill to
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
April 1955.
Page 2
Draft typescript letter with annotations.
Churchill Papers,
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge, U.K. (292
) © Crown copyright 1955,
Archival Reference # CHUR
2/217/37-38
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THE FINAL DECADE
Churchill finally retired from public
life in April 1955, at the age of eighty. He retained his seat
in the British Parliament until 1964 but no longer played an active
role in politics.
The final decade of Churchill's life has been described as a "long
sunset." He continued to be feted and honored, and he enjoyed a
final visit to the White House in 1959. During this period he published
his last great work, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
In Britain, he established Churchill College, Cambridge. In America,
he became the second person after Revolutionary War hero the Marquis
de Lafayette to receive honorary U.S. citizenship.
Sir Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965, seventy years
to the day after the death of his father. He received a state funeral
at St. Paul's Cathedral and, in recognition of his American ties,
the congregation rose to sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Churchill
is buried with his parents in the small village churchyard at Bladon,
within sight of Blenheim Palace, the place where his remarkable
life had begun ninety years earlier.
Toni Frissell.
Winston, Randolph, and Winston Churchill, 1953.
Copyprint.
Prints and Photographs Division (285)
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Three Generations
Churchill, his son Randolph, and his grandson Winston are
shown in this joint portrait by Toni Frissell. In April 1953
Winston accepted an offer by Queen Elizabeth II to become
a member of the Order of the Garter, an honor he had declined
after World War II. In this photograph, taken in June 1953
during the Queen's Coronation ceremonies, Sir Winston Churchill
is shown wearing the Garter Mantle and the badge of the Order
on a chain around his neck.
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Trooping the Color
In this photograph, probably taken in 1953, Churchill stands
as he observes the ceremony of Trooping the Color in London.
The pageantry marks the official birthday celebration of
the monarch.
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Toni Frissell.
Winston
Churchill Observes the Ceremony
of Trooping the Color, 1953.
Copyprint.
Prints and Photographs Division (287)
LC-F9-04-5306-100-34
|
Edwin Marcus.
Co-pilots,
1955.
Drawing.
Used Online Courtesy of the Marcus Family
Cartoon Drawings Collection,
Prints and Photographs
Division (294)
[Digital ID# acd 2a10484]
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Eden Takes Over
A ghostly figure ("Churchill's Training") steadies the helm
as Anthony Eden succeeds Churchill as Britain's Prime Minister.
The two men had been colleagues since the 1930s, when they
had worked together to move British policy away from appeasing
Hitler and the Nazis. Eden, who served as Churchill's Foreign
Minister in the 1940s and 1950s, was also the husband of
Churchill's niece Clarissa.
Used Online Courtesy of the Marcus Family
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A Queen's Farewell
Queen Elizabeth II is greeted by Winston and Clementine
Churchill as she arrives for a dinner given at 10 Downing
Street on April 4, 1955. In leading his guests in the loyal
toast to Her Majesty, Churchill noted that as a young cavalry
officer he had proposed similar toasts during the reign of
her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria. He resigned
as Prime Minister on the following day.
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United Press.
Churchill
Bows Out, 1955.
Photograph.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (295)
|
Winston Churchill to
Henry R. Luce,
December 6, 1956.
Typed letter.
Henry Luce
Papers,
Manuscript Division (297)
|
Separation Over Suez
Serious differences arose between the United Kingdom and
the United States during the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. Without
consulting their American allies, British forces invaded
Egypt in an attempt to regain control of the waterway, which
Egypt earlier had nationalized. Although publicly supportive
of his government's action, Churchill privately expressed
his dismay at the resulting split between the Americans and
the British. This letter to publisher Henry Luce indicates
his unhappiness.
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A Personal Guest of the President
In May 1959, at the age of eighty-four, Churchill returned
to the United States as a personal guest of the President
Eisenhower. He crossed the Atlantic by jet plane, was entertained
at the White House, and flew with the President by helicopter
to Gettysburg where Churchill viewed the Civil War battlefield,
about which he had written, from the air. It was all a far
cry from the steamships and carriages of his first American
visit.
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President Dwight D.
Eisenhower
to Sir Winston Churchill,
May 26, 1959.
Typescript letter with signature.
Churchill Papers,
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge, U.K. (303) |
President Dwight D.
Eisenhower
to Sir Winston Churchill,
May 12, 1958.
Typescript letter with autograph.
Churchill Papers,
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge, U.K. (303.1)
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Founder of Churchill College
Though no longer in power, Churchill cared passionately
about the future of his country. He helped found Churchill
College at the University of Cambridge as a center of excellence
for scientific and technological research and training. The
college was dedicated as the National and Commonwealth Memorial
to Sir Winston. Today, Churchill College continues to thrive,
teaching all subjects, still specializing in science and
technology. The college also houses the Churchill Archives
Centre.
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Letters from First Graders
Shown here are letters sent by first-grade school children
from Locust Valley, New York, which Churchill kept as a souvenir
of his 1959 visit. Churchill, who as a young boy was interested
in history, had become an old man and now the subject of
history.
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Briton Hadden
to Sir Winston Churchill,
Carol to Sir Winston Churchill
May 1959.
Holograph letters.
Churchill Papers,
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge, U.K. (304 a-b)
TRANSCRIPTION AVAILABLE |
Kennedy and Churchill
Churchill returned to the United States in 1961, for his
final visit, on board the yacht of Greek shipping magnate
Aristotle Onassis. In New York he was able to see his old
friend Bernard Baruch, but his weakened condition did not
permit him to accept President John F. Kennedy's invitation
to be flown to Washington. In June 1962, Churchill injured
himself in Monte Carlo. Determined to die in England, he
returned home in an RAF jet. His recovery was accompanied
by thousands of messages from well-wishers, including this
one from Kennedy. Churchill would outlive the President;
Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline, would later marry Onassis.
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Ed Ford.
Churchill & Baruch
Talk in Car
in Front of Baruch's Home,
1961.
Photograph.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (305)
|
President
John F. Kennedy
to Sir Winston Churchill,
July 6, 1962.
Telegram.
Churchill Papers,
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge, U.K. (307)
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Winston Churchill, American
On April 9, 1963, Kennedy signed a Congressionally authorized
proclamation conferring honorary U.S. citizenship upon Churchill.
Too frail to travel to America to attend the ceremony, Churchill
watched from England via live satellite broadcast. This cartoon,
which was published in London's Daily Mail on the
following day, illustrates the personal connection by which
Churchill bridged the destinies of two nations.
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The Library does not have permission
to present this object online
Leslie Illingworth.
The Bridge,
1963.
India ink and pencil drawing.
Used online courtesy of the Daily Mail.
Swann Collection,
Prints and Photographs
Division (308) |
The Library does not have permission
to
present this object online
NBC.
Winston Churchill Becomes A Citizen,
1963.
Sound Reel.
Motion Picture,
Broadcasting and
Recorded Sound Division (309)
|
The
Order of Service for the Funeral of The Right Honourable
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill K.G., O.M., C.H.,
1965.
Printed pamphlet.
Page 2
Earl Warren Papers,
Manuscript Division (310)
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His Truth Is Marching On
Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965--seventy years
to the day after his father. Queen Elizabeth, in a rare tribute
to a commoner, accorded to him a state funeral. Churchill's
family selected a few of his lifelong-favorite hymns to be
sung at the service. Among them was Julia Ward Howe's magnificent
song from the American Civil War, "The Battle Hymn of the
Republic."
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The Lion
World War II veteran and cartoonist Bill Mauldin drew this
symbol of a grieving Britain on the occasion of Churchill's
death.
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Bill Mauldin,
Lion shedding a tear,
1965.
Ink, crayon, and white out drawing.
© 1965 by Bill Mauldin.
Reproduced with permission.
Prints and Photographs
Division (311)
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