Opinion: Remembering Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech 75 years ago

"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: Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, and Sofia ..."

The scene was a small institution in tiny Fulton, Missouri called Westminster College. The date: March 5, 1946. A Westminster alum and native Missourian named Harry Vaughan served as a military aide to his old World War I pal -- first to senator, then vice president, and now president of the United States -- Harry Truman. Westminster officials sought to invite the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, to make an address on their campus. They reached out to Gen. Vaughan, who urged Truman to make the invitation a personal one from our commander in chief.

This Truman did, sending Churchill a personal note with the Westminster invitation, relating that "this is one of the fine small colleges in my home state," and saying that if Churchill would agree to make the trip, "I will introduce you." Churchill, in his first year of being out of office, and in need of a major forum, promptly accepted.

FILE - In this March 5, 1946 file photo, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill finishes speaking as President Harry Truman, center, looks on at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. During the speech, Churchill used the term "iron curtain" as a metaphor for the growing Soviet influence over the wreckage of post-World War II Europe. The speech's 75th anniversary will be marked Friday, March 5, 2021, with with a virtual commemoration due to COVID-19 restrictions. (AP Photo File)

By this fortuitous set of circumstances, history would be made 75 years ago in Calloway County. Churchill would be speaking at the A.P. Green Lecture. Mr. Green, of A.P. Green Fire Brick Co., maternal grandfather of two-term governor and four-term Sen. Kit Bond, had made a fortune in nearby Mexico, Missouri, putting that town on the map as a world leader in fire brick production.

Churchill was all about what has been called the "special relationship" between Great Britain and the United States -- what he called "the Great Republic." And of course this too came in for a mention in this historic address:

"We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and through which the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence. ... Here is the message of the English and American peoples to mankind."

FILE - In this March 4, 1946 file photo, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, left, and President Truman wave from the President's special train as they leave Washington, for Fulton, Mo., where Churchill will speak at Westminster College. During the speech, Churchill used the term "iron curtain" as a metaphor for the growing Soviet influence over the wreckage of post-World War II Europe. The speech's 75th anniversary will be marked Friday, March 5, 2021, with with a virtual commemoration due to COVID-19 restrictions. (AP Photo/File)

Missourians can rightly take great pride that we had a family like the Greens who would endow this lecture, and a native-son president, allowing this amazing set of circumstances to bring this world-historical address to unfold at charming little Westminster College. Churchill is immortalized for all time on this beautiful campus. You should visit.

Peter Kinder, of Cape Girardeau, is former lieutenant governor of the State of Missouri.