“The Main End of English Statecraft”

World leaders regularly visit Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, a small town of 12,000 people with an enormous ability to attract heads of state. Winston Churchill’s historic appearance in Fulton, of course, stands above all others. His “Sinews of Peace” speech, delivered on 5 March 1946, was one of the first salvos in the Cold War and set the stage for others to comment upon world affairs from one of the unlikeliest of places in the center of America. The importance of Churchill’s address, commonly called the “Iron Curtain” speech—and known worldwide simply as the “Fulton Speech”—paved a path for other leaders to follow. Presidents Harry S. Truman, Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan all journeyed to and spoke in Fulton (Bush