Winston Churchill: The Iron Curtain - Essay Example

Churchill expressed his fear that the emerging polarization between communist and democratic blocs of the world may result in war. He asserted that the Russians, even if they didn’t like war themselves, desired “indefinite expansion of their power and ideals” and enjoyed the “fruits of war” (Churchill). Indirectly mentioning the sea, land, and air capabilities of the military, he advised that it was through military strength that a sense of security would prevail. This strength could also provide the negotiation leverage to find a mutually agreeable formula with Russians under the umbrella of United Nations Organizations.

Joseph Stalin, in an interview with Pravda sometime later, responded to Churchill. At the outset, he termed the idea of a brewing war ludicrous and a product of the mind of someone “who lost one’s reason” (Stalin). Picking up cleverly on Churchill’s call for the English-speaking world to unite, Stalin termed it as an attempt to create a racial divide, linguistic superiority, and a holier-than-thou approach to achieve his goals of fomenting an imaginary war. He compared Churchill’s speech with Hitler’s policies which believed in the superiority of those who spoke the German language.

Stalin recalled in detail the sacrifices the Soviet Union had made during the world war and termed them higher than any other country involved in the war. In doing so, he tried to bring home the point that Russia was committed to peace in the world and played a major role in defending freedom in the world against the Nazi onslaught. In repeated references to Churchill and comparisons with Hitler, Stalin tried to deconstruct and even discredit him. On Churchill’s assertion that communism and the ideas of the Left were not developed in Britain, Stalin responded that Churchill with his upper-class mannerisms had recently lost elections to Labor which was ironically a Left-oriented party.

While acknowledging the overall surge of communism in Europe, he identified it as a result of the social conditions and the recognition and reward by people for communists who bravely stood up against fascist governments.