FULTON - Robert L. Hawkins Jr., a retired Jefferson City attorney, had a special reason for wanting to attend the dedication Friday of a sculpture of Sir Winston Churchill commemorating his famed "Sinews of Peace" address at Westminster College.
Hawkins, 89, was in the audience when Churchill intoned: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent." It was Churchill's historic warning of the growing Communist threat posed to the West by the Soviet Union.
That day 65 years ago on March 5, 1946 - when Churchill came to Westminster College to deliver his message to the world - is considered by some as the start of the Cold War.
"The Westminster auditorium that day was jammed. People were standing around outside later trying to get in. President Harry Truman was here," Hawkins said.
Hawkins was asked if he thought people hearing Churchill's comments about the Iron Curtain understood the significance of what he was saying.
"I would say that anyone who was keeping up with foreign affairs at the time knew perfectly well what he was saying. They didn't regard it as something that was going to happen, but something that had already happened. Everybody in my circle realized that the Communist threat already was an accomplished fact," Hawkins said.
"Only a year after the end of World War II, there had developed a big division between the free world and the Communist bloc of nations headed by the Soviet Union," Hawkins said.
"Eventually, we prevailed in the worldwide struggle against communism. Freedom won," Hawkins said with a smile.
Hawkins said the sculpture of Churchill unveiled Friday at the dedication "is a wonderful likeness of Churchill. It is a perfect location just outside the entrance to the Churchill Museum. The sculptor did a tremendous job. I'm so pleased I lived long enough to see not only Churchill's speech, but also the dedication of this sculpture 65 years later."