Winston Churchill was British prime minister from 1940-1945. In 1946, speaking at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., he coined the term "Iron Curtain." Some people think Churchill was talking about the Berlin Wall as the "Iron Curtain," but he was actually referring to the general closing off of Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall was not built until 1961. Still, some people believe the Berlin Wall is the enduring symbol of the Iron Curtain. Churchill said:
 
"An Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all of the capitals of the ancient states of central and eastern Europe . . . all these famous cities and the populations around lie in the Soviet sphere and all are subject . . . to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow."
 
Joseph Stalin, Soviet Communist Party leader from 1929-1953, responded to Churchill in a speech the same year:
 
"The Soviet Union's loss of life [during World War II] has been several times greater than that of Britain and the United States of America put together. . . And so what can be so surprising about the fact that the Soviet Union, anxious for its future safety, is trying to see to it that governments loyal in their attitude to the Soviet Union should exist in these countries?"
 
Churchill said Moscow "controlled" residents behind the Iron Curtain. Stalin spoke about people being "loyal" to the Soviet Union. These are two different slants, or viewpoints, on the same situation. Britain and the United States were among the countries saying people were being held captive by the Soviet Union. But the Soviet Union said its citizens were safer because of more secure borders.

Which story do you think more accurately represents the truth? If you were a resident of Eastern Europe in the late 1940s, would you fear future world wars? Would you feel more secure behind the Iron Curtain? If you were a citizen of a neighboring Western European country, would you think Moscow trapped Eastern Europe? Once the Berlin Wall was erected, would you have looked forward to its fall?