The story of the most powerful political metaphor of the twentieth century: the 'Iron Curtain'. Opening with Churchill's use of the term in his legendary Fulton speech of 1946, this fascinating investigation shatters the conventional assumption that Churchill invented it and charts its long and influential history prior to the onset of the Cold War. - ;'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. . .' With these words Winston Churchill famously warned the world in a now legendary speech given in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946.