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Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech acknowledges "Russia's need to be secure on her western borders," but at the same time it raises concerns about...

In my view, Churchill is not being inconsistent in his “Iron Curtain” speech. There are two reasons for this.  First, there is the fact that the Soviet Union was dominating many countries other than Germany whereas Churchill only argued that it should be secure from German aggression.  Second, I would argue that Churchill does present some arguments that can be seen as “concrete justifications” for his concerns about Soviet aggression.


In his speech, Churchill does not say that the Soviets have an absolute right to secure their borders against any possible threat.  Instead, he says that he understands


the Russian need to be secure on her western frontiers by the removal of all possibility of German aggression.


Even if the Soviets have the right to be secure from German aggression, this does not mean that they have the right to dominate all the other countries of the region.  The parts of Germany that the West controlled were separated from the Soviet Union by the Soviet Zone of Germany as well as by other countries like Poland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia.  The Soviets did not need all of Eastern Europe as a protection against a dismembered Germany.


Secondly, Churchill does provide concrete justifications for being suspicious of the Soviets.  He points out that the countries of Eastern Europe are not being allowed to determine their own destinies.  He says that the communist parties of these countries are being


raised to pre-eminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control.


There is a difference between wanting to be insulated from your enemies, on the one hand, and forcing totalitarian governments on all sorts of countries on the other hand.  If the Soviets were imposing communist totalitarianism on Eastern European countries (and putting pressure on countries like Turkey and Iran as well), this would be a concrete justification for worrying about Soviet expansion.

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