The Essential Speeches of the Cold War

Sean Brennan is Professor of History at the University of Scranton and an expert on the history of 20th-century Europe and the Cold War. He is the author of Warren Austin, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr, and the Cold War at the United Nations, 1947–1960 (2022).

Introduction 1. Leon Trotsky Calls for World Revolution, November 8, 1917 2. Adolf Hitler Predicts the Cold War, April 2, 1945 3. Josef Stalin Argues the Laws of History Will Soon End the World War II Alliance, February 9, 1946 4. Winston Churchill Discusses the Fall of the Iron Curtain, March 5, 1946 5. The Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947 6. George Marshall Gives the Most Important Commencement Address in History, June 5, 1947 7. Andrei Zhdanov Announces a World Split in Two, September 22, 1947 8. Ernest Bevin Warns of the Soviet Threat, January 22, 1948 9. Ernst Reuter Announces West Berlin Will Not Give In, September 9, 1948 10. Mao Zedong Announces the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, October 1, 1949 11. Joseph McCarthy Searches for the Enemies Within, February 9, 1950 12. Douglas MacArthur Declares There Is No Substitute for Victory, April 16, 1951 13. Dwight Eisenhower Offers a Chance for Peace, April 16, 1953 14. Nikita Khrushchev Denounces Joseph Stalin, February 25, 1956 15. The Last Speech of Imre Nagy, November 4, 1956 16. Fidel Castro Calls Out President Kennedy, October 23, 1962 17. John F. Kennedy Declares, “Ich Bin Ein Berliner”, June 26, 1963 18. Charles de Gaulle Bids Au Revoir to NATO, February 21, 1966 19. Leonid Brezhnev Announces His Doctrine, November 13, 1968 20. Richard Nixon Plans a Change in Cold War Tactics, July 25, 1969 21. Gerald Ford and the Height of Détente, August 1, 1975 22. Jimmy Carter Calls for a New Approach to the Cold War, May 22, 1977 23. Ronald Reagan and the Evil Empire, March 8, 1983 24. Lech Walesa Speaks for the Captive Nation of Poland, December 10, 1983 25. “You Cannot Imagine It Unless You’ve Been There”: Mikhail Gorbachev Admits to the Disaster at Chernobyl, May 14, 1986 26. Reagan Calls for the End of the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987 27. Helmut Kohl Calls for a Reunited Germany, December 19, 1989 28. George H.W. Bush orders Chicken Kyiv, August 1, 1991 29. Boris Yeltsin Stands His Ground, August 19, 1991 30. Gorbachev Announces an End to the Twentieth Century, December 25, 1991