Post-war world and Iron Curtain Flashcards
Post-War world intro:
Churchill (out of office now), vision of Britain role in post-war world is best summarised as a venn diagram which he explained to a Conservative party meeting in 1948. The first circle for Britain is ‘the British Commonwealth and Empire’. Second circle is the ‘English-speaking world’, finally there is ‘United Europe’.
Churchill and empire
Empire had played vital role in war. 2.25 million Indian soldiers – largest volunteer army on earth had fought for Brits. 7,000 men from Caribbean had joined the RAF, and a third of a million African servicemen had fought. Canada had spent $1.6bn producing RAF pilots and navigators.
HE, war bankrupted Britain, with 1941 Atlaintic Charter, with its promise of self-determination, weakened British control and strengthened independent movements….
In 1947, India granted freedom
Burma (Myanmar) 1948
Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1948
In Palestine were tensions between Jews and Arabs were becoming increasingly violent, Britain withdrew.
Although only in 1950s and 60s African colonies declared independence, it was clear after war British Empire was ending.
Churchill and Europe
During war, negotiated with Stalin ‘percentages agreement’ to retain considerable influence in Greece and across Mediterranean. Churchill was anxious Greece should not fall to communism, and British troops fought there in 1944 as part of Greek Civil War.
He also loved France, even floating idea of union between Britain and France as Hitler’s forces swept westwards.
In 19th September, Zurich, 1946, delivered a speech in Europe. Where he advocated for a ‘kind of United States of Europe’. He also advocated for ‘a partnership between France and Germany’.
Other evidence of this view where in a debate on Schuman Plan in 1950, which proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community, and to which Britain’s Labour govenrmetn had refused to join, Churchill criticised Attlee, saying that the French say ‘the absence of Britain deranges the balance of Europe’.
HE, after coming PM in 1951, he could’ve pushed Britain towards participation, with many young Tory MPs – Macmillan, Boothby, Heath – in favour. Yet he didn’t suggesting his enthusiasm for Europe not that strong.
He also stated in 1950 Commons speech that he ‘cannot conceive that Britain should be an ordinary member of a Federal Union limited to Europe’, instead ‘should seek… to become intimately associated’.
Churchill and America
Churchill envisaged ‘special relationship’ with America – brought phrase into popular usage in 1946 Iron Curtain speech.
Britain certainly reliant on US Keynes was sent to Washington in (July) 1946 to negotiate an American loan to help Britain stay afloat after war, only securing $3.75bn (less than half of the $8bn Britain was seeking)… Junior role.
HE, Churchill was right about US lack of attention to Soviets in war. Only in March 12 1947, that Truman announced the Truman Doctrine, a fundamental shift in US foreign policy designed to contain spread of communism.
Iron Curtain speech
5 MARCH 1946 in Fulton Missouri
Despite detailing his ‘strong admiration’ for his ‘wartime comrade’, he exposes the ‘increasing measure of control from Moscow’ on the ‘ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe’, and symbolises this with ‘an iron curtain’.
He stresses that he repulses ‘the idea that a new war is inevitable’, or ‘imminent’, but he states that they desire the ‘fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power’.
He explains that ‘our difficulties and dangers will not be removed by closing our eyes to them’ and that they will not be ‘removed by a policy of appeasement’.
He calls for ‘the Western Democracies’ to ‘stand together’, and references this situation to the German situation of the 1930s, and how if people ‘paid any attention’ to his warnings, then the ‘miseries Hitler let loose upon mankind’ may ‘have been spared’.
Reaction to speech
Reacotion to speech:
- US: Chicago Sun called it ‘poisonous’ and reflected broader American press
- Truman had seen it before however, but denied foreknowledge… his Under Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, refused to attend a reception with Churchill despite having already accepted.
- Britain: 100 Labour MPs signed a motion denouncing speech
- Stalin called Churchill ‘a firebrand of war’ and that ‘one is reminded remarkably of Hitler and his friends’.
