John Michael DiDonato

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The Sinews of Peace
Winston Churchills The Sinews of Peace speech impacted not only a nation, but also the world.
Given in 1946, the speech awakened a nation to threats from abroad and inspired action to challenge
those threats. After outlining the route to world peace and introducing the roadblocks that the Soviet
Union presented in obtaining such peace, Churchills aim became clear. His objective was to call the
American people to face the challenges that the Soviet Union presented in reaching world peace.
Churchill effectively achieved his goal by employing useful tools such as diction, personification, allusion,
metaphor, and invention throughout the entirety of his speech. Churchill was so effective in delivering
his message that this speech is often seen as a Western declaration of Cold War against the Soviet
Union. During the Cold War, America challenged the Soviet Union without engaging in a physical war
with them, which is what Churchill advocated for in his speech.
Before any attempts to analyze Churchills message or his effectiveness in relaying it, a proper
context must be established. Only when placed in the proper context can a speech be fully understood
enough to be examined and analyzed. In order to establish context, contemporaries must put on both
historical and ideological lenses. When placed together, these frames of thought reveal interconnected
situations that gave rise to Churchills speech. The Allied Victory at the end of World War II produced
two superpowers that were unmatched by any others in strength: the Soviet Union and the United
States. The victory precipitated Americans not to worry about future wars and caused an increasing
amount of Soviet influence and control in Eastern Europe. The victory was also followed by Stalins
election speech in which he heavily criticized and attacked capitalism as being the underlying cause of
both world wars then promoted and glorified communism. These situations helped give rise to
Churchills speech because they caused much ideological and international tension between these two
countries, and The Sinews of Peace is meant to highlight these tensions and provide solutions to them.
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Another component of context is location. The location for Churchills speech is important to
identify as it provides a further understanding of its meaning. The location of Churchills speech was
Westminster College in the United States. The fact that the speech was given in America is important in
a historical sense because America was one of the two superpowers in the post-WWII world. By
choosing to present his speech in the United States, Churchill effectively reaffirmed that the diplomatic
and economic solutions he proposes in the speech must center around America. From the ideological
perspective, the speech was delivered in America because America represents the heartland of
capitalism in the world and the ideological opponent to communism. Through location, Churchill had
already taken his stance on these opposing ideologies before speaking a single word. Together, the
situations that gave rise to the speech and the location of the speech both provide evidence of the
relevant and opportune timing of Churchills speech. In other words, since Churchills message dealt
with the pressing issues at hand, his speech was primed for maximum receptivity.
Both the speaker and the audience are distinct, but complementary components of context.
Understanding the speaker-audience relationship is crucial to analyzing the speech since this
relationship determines the potential strength of impact the speaker may have on an audience. It is
important to note that a speakers relationship with their audience does not directly correspond to their
effectiveness in conveying their message but rather their potential effectiveness. The speaker still needs
to persuade their audience, but their persuasion is limited by their connection with the audience. The
relationship between the speaker and audience stems from the speakers ability to identify with the
audience and appeal to their values and emotions as well as the audiences perception of the speaker.
The intended audience of The Sinews of Peace speech is U.S. citizens. This fact is largely evident through
the previous two components of context. The situations that gave rise to Churchills speech deal
specifically with Americans and the location of the delivered speech itself is in America. It is also evident
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in Churchills repetitive calls for America to stand up against the Soviets expansion. As noted previously,
the speaker of this speech is Winston Churchill.
At the time of the speech, the U.S. audience held Churchill in high regard. As the former Prime
Minister of Great Britain, Churchill helped lead Great Britain to victory in WWII and gained the respect of
many. Also, because of his former position, he possessed much authority on the subject of international
issues. In addition to his own charisma and merit, Churchill was introduced by the President of the
United States, Harry Truman, who remained seated behind him throughout the speech. Trumans
presence represented the Presidents approval. Churchills ability to appeal to the U.S. audience is
evident throughout his speech. This was easy for Churchill to do because he possessed the same values
as the U.S. audience. He shared in the U.S.s love of capitalism, freedom, peace, and democracy and
shared their fear and distain for communism and tyranny. By identifying and evaluating the speaker and
the audience, it is clear that a strong relationship existed between Churchill and his audience, meaning
that Churchill possessed the potential to impact the audience greatly.
Now that context has been established, Churchills speech can be analyzed to determine how he
employed different devices to achieve his speechs goal. Along with the devices found within the
speech, the speechs style and arrangement are key to evaluating its effectiveness. Churchills style is
marked by his emphatic stance against the Soviet Union and his serious tone in discussing matters of
monumental weight. It was in Churchills style that allowed the audience to comprehend the gravity of
his message. Churchill presented his speech in a topical and sequential arrangement in which topics
logically progressed into the discussion of related topics. This format allowed Churchill to present many
different ideas in a coherent fashion that tied his speech together.
The first topic presented dealt with the United States power and subsequent and corresponding
responsibility. Churchill frankly states to his U.S. audience that, The United States stands at this time at
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the pinnacle of world power. With this power, Churchill elaborates, entails an awe-inspiring
accountability and anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Churchills emotionally
burdening diction highlights to audience members why the speech is pertinent to them because they
are the ones in charge of keeping peace. Churchill also employs diction to relay the approach the U.S.
should take in carrying out their responsibility to ensure peace. Churchills borrows the military phrase
over-all strategic concept and applies it the U.S.s approach. Churchills decision to relate a strategy for
achieving peace to a strategy for winning wars provides a hint that the nature of peace keeping will be
hostile and tense like wars. The audience members were largely shocked to hear Churchill's reference to
war, especially so close after their victory in WWII. Churchills use of military diction helps prepare an
unsuspecting and unaware U.S. audience for the speechs later revelations about the Soviet Union.
Carrying the momentum and ideas of his first topic, Churchill shifts to discuss the actions the
U.S. must take in order to secure global peace. Churchill explains that to keep peace all people must be
shielded from two giant marauders, war and tyranny. Churchill employs personification here to
emphasize the dreadful nature of war and tyranny. By giving them the attributes of a marauder, one
who raids and plunders, he is better able to connect with the audiences emotions so that they can
better grasp the consequences of not achieving peace.
In this section, Churchill uses allusions to highlight the discrepancies that exist between Soviet
actions and his outlined version of peace. Churchill first addresses the problem of war in keeping peace.
Amidst outlining the benefits that a militarized unit in the UN could provide in avoiding war, Churchill
states that the United States should not share its knowledge of atomic bombs with the UN since the
organization is so new and not established. While on this subject, Churchill casually, but deliberately
remarks that he possessed a peace of mind knowing that only the United States held the knowledge to
create atomic weaponry. Churchill then goes on to state, I do not believe we should all have slept so
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soundly had the positions been reversed and if some Communist or neo-Fascist State monopolized for
the time being these dread agencies. Here, Churchill negatively alludes to the Soviet Union by using the
term Communist State and effectively equates them to having the qualities of Fascist Italy and Nazi
Germany, the Axis powers during WWII. The Axis powers, namely Germany, were largely the aggressors
and catalysts of WWII. By paralleling the Soviet Union with the Axis powers, Churchill implies to the
audience that if given nuclear capabilities the Soviet Union might act very similarly to that of Nazis
Germany. The audience has no trouble believing this logic because they are as anti-communist as
Churchill and believe communism to be as terrible as Fascism or Nazism.
Continuing on with his outline for peace, Churchill addresses the other issue of tyranny which
could roadblock his route to peace. He makes apparent that not all people experience the liberties
Americans receive and this is true even in a number of countries, some of which are very powerful and
that in these States control is enforced by dictators or by compact oligarchies operating through a
privileged party and a political police. Here again, Churchill uses allusions to emphasize his concerns of
the Soviet Union. At this time, the Soviet Union was a world superpower and its people were subjected
to a dictator in Stalin and a compact oligarchy in the Communist Party. The Soviet Union perfectly fits
the description of a country where its people are lacking in liberties, meaning Churchill's words were
carefully chosen to act as an allusion towards the Soviet Union. The message that a lack of liberties is a
direct result of tyranny hits home with Churchills U.S. audience. Apart from the rational opposition to
tyranny, the United States has a personal history against tyranny as the country was founded when it
declared independence from the tyrannical control of England. So ingrained in U.S. history and culture
is a distain for tyranny that Americans cannot help but to empathize with those experiencing tyrannys
suppressing effects. Even though Churchill is English himself, he is able to identify the feelings of his
American audience and is consequently able to further his concerns of the Soviet Union by connecting
with the emotions of his audience.
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After using diction to highlight the relevancy of his speech and to hint that the nature of peace
keeping might be tense, Churchill uses allusions to the Soviet Union to point out why keeping peace will
not be easy. In the next topic of The Sinews of Peace, Churchill explicitly proves why the Soviet Union is
inhibiting the peace process. One way Churchill accomplishes this is through a metaphor:
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across
the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and
Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and
Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the
Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence
but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.
(Churchill 253)
The phrase iron curtain is used as a metaphor to liken Soviet actions in Eastern Europe to those of an
iron curtain. An iron curtain can be seen as a strong, firm, unrelenting concealer and blocker. This relates
to how the Soviet Union closed off Eastern Europe from the rest of the world. Eastern Europe was
impenetrable to different ideologies as only communism was allowed to thrive there. The Soviet control
of Eastern Europe was seen to Churchill as evidence of tyranny. This powerful metaphor fully connected
with Churchills audience because it provided a symbolic visual on the conflictive implications of the
Soviets actions. Evidence to support the metaphors effectiveness can be seen by evaluating its effects.
The term iron curtain has become an iconic phrase of the Cold War.
Churchill also uses invention as a tool to further his cause. He acknowledges the Soviet claim
that their actions are precautions necessary to secure their western border from all future German
aggression, but argues their intentions are more expansionistic than defensive. By understanding the
Soviet position, he is able to better understand the issue and therefore be a better judge of it. Due to
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invention, Churchills argument is not as one-sided, but more objective. In this particular case, Churchill
is able to gain more influence with those Americans who were unsure whether to believe in the Western
or Soviet interpretation of events in Eastern Europe.
Churchill concludes this segment by stating, This is certainly not the Liberated Europe we
fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace. Churchill invokes a
sense of unity amongst the audience with the words we fought to build up while also summarizing the
points he has been making, Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace. Together,
Churchill conveys to his audience that the Soviets are disrupting the peace process and that we,
Americans, ought to act against this so to achieve peace. It is at this point where Churchill is able to
convince the audience members that not only is peace threatened, but they must challenge those who
oppose peace. Upon convincing his audience, Churchill in the speechs final topic offers suggestions on
how the U.S. should act. It is in this topic where Churchill stresses that war must be avoided at all costs.
Churchills speech is one of the greatest in the Cold Wars history and this is because Churchill
was able to convey his message so effectively. The situations that gave rise to the speech, the speechs
location, as well as the consciousness of Churchill to appeal to his U.S. audience and the audiences open
reception to Churchills words, provided the perfect context for Churchill to deliver an impactful speech.
Churchills style and arrangement in delivering his speech further aided his cause. Finally, the tools of
diction, personification, allusion, metaphor and invention were used to persuade his audience that
Soviet actions were contrary to peace and that they must act in opposition in order to achieve peace. In
evaluating the speechs effect in causing the U.S. to oppose Soviet expansionism during the next forty
years during the Cold War, it is clear that Churchills message was well received by his American
audience.

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Works Cited
Churchill, Winston. "The Sinews of Peace." Speech. Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri. 5
Mar. 1946. NATO, 26 Nov. 2001. Web. 4 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/1946/s460305a_e.htm>.