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Sinews of Peace
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Winston Churchill (1874-1965) is a well-known British army officer, politician and writer. He became prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1940 and served the office till 1945. He is famous for his contribution in The Second World War, where he emerged as a revolutionary personality and the only reliable hurdle against the Communist Revolution. Churchill is widely considered as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. He was an imperialist, economic liberal who remained a member of the Conservative Party for a long period of time, and then from 1904 to 1924 he was a member of the Liberal Party. The important aspect of Churchill’s life is his capability to influence the masses, especially youth by virtue of his great oratory and writing skills.
In this assignment, one of Churchill’s most famous speech “The Sinew of Peace”, will be discussed and analyzed. It is regarded as one of the most important speeches as the opposition leader. He delivered the speech on March 5th, 1946, at Westminster College. The speech is famous because of certain phrases used by Churchill which got international attention and had a strong impact on public opinion across Europe and the United States. These phrases include ‘The Sinew of Peace”, “The Special Relationship” and “The Iron Curtain”. According to some Russian scholars, this speech was one the reasons or starting point of the cold war.
Winston Churchill was considered as one of the best orators of, not only Britain, but of the whole world, in his time. His war-time speeches are regarded as his best speeches, having capabilities of leaving an impact on the world’s politics. In the speech ‘The Sinew of Peace, he used compressed language, repetitions, rhythms, rhymes and half-rhymes and also some powerful imagery. All these techniques mixed with influential ideas and amazing content, produced a masterpiece speech at the end.
By understanding the political scenario of those times, the target audience of Churchill’s speech were the American academics, politicians and the general public, primarily. Also, it is important to consider the bilateral relationship between Churchill and Truman, the president of the United States. Both leaders already had meetings along with Stalin at the event of the Potsdam conference and make the decision of historical importance. Truman sat behind Winston Churchill throughout the meeting and listened to the whole speech. The secondary audience of the speech were other European countries, as Churchill was aimed at political strategies to tackle the threat of communism after World War II.
As discussed above, the primary audience of Winston Churchill’s speech was the American government and the general public. Churchill’s clear aim, as reflected in this speech, was to take the American side as a major partner and supporter, in order to intercept the upcoming threat of Communist Russia. He was aware of the Russian influence and communist activities in the southern and western parts of Europe and described them as obedient agents of the USSR. He urged the United States to develop a special relationship between the two countries by expressing the cultural terms, saying “We not only speak the same language, we think the same thoughts (Churchill)”. In this speech, Winston Churchill alarms America and other European countries about the upcoming threat of communism and the expansion of the Soviets in Europe. He claimed that the Russians were not only using a coercive approach, but they were really getting stronger and would have continued to do so. He urged the Allied countries to take timely action. He said that it is suspected that the Soviets would make a pro-communist Germany, give rise to the defeated Germans and an option to auction between the western democracies and the soviets. This was by all means, against the interests of the United States, Great Britain and other European nations.
References
Churchill, W., & Truman, H. S. (1965). The Sinews of Peace. New York: Halcyon-Commonwealth Foundation.
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