Iron Curtain

The so-called Iron Curtain, with the NATO
countries in blue and the Warsaw Pact countries
in red. (Free Art License 1.3)
Former Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, gave a speech on March 5, 1946 in Fulton, Missouri.  In this speech he described the situation in Europe--between the western Democratic countries and the Eastern communist countries under the control of the Soviet Union as "an Iron Curtain."  The Iron Curtain will further be made evident by NATO in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

Although metaphorical, the "Iron Curtain" came to symbolize the Cold War as it became clear in Europe and beyond the lines that had been drawn and the alliances that had been made.