On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill, who had just seen Great Britain through World War Two as prime minister, delivered his iconic "Iron Curtain" speech to a packed gynmasium at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
Nancy Carver has written a book about that speech, The Inspiring History of a Special Relationship. Listen to her interview with KSMU's Jennifer Moore below.
Carver says it's understandable why the speech, which was about the "special relationship" between the U.S. and Great Britain, was remembered for two other words: "iron curtain."
"Unfortunately, at the time, people thought a 'special relationship' meant alliance. And they were war-weary and didn't want to go back to war. And so people latched on to the words 'Iron Curtain,'" Carver said.
Carver says the reason Churchill used that term was to illustrate "the lack of transparency that was going on in the European countries that Russia was taking over." An iron curtain was traditionally deployed in theatres to protect the audience in the event that a fire broke out on stage.
The book is available on Amazon and through this linkfrom America's National Churchill Museum. The author is donating all proceeds of the book to the resotration of the Christopher Wren-designed Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. which dates back to the 17th Century. The Church was moved from London to Fulton and reconstructed stone-by-stone on the Westminster College campus.