AP US History

Answer - A - Winston Churchill used the phrase “Iron Curtain” to describe the division of Europe after World War II.

Key Takeaway: The Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological and physical boundary that divided Europe into two separate areas from the end of the Second World War until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed international economic and military alliances, with the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact in the east (with the main power in the Soviet Union) and the European Community and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the west and south (with the main power in the United States).

Physically, the Iron Curtain took the shape of large border defenses between the countries of Western and Eastern Europe. The most notable defense was the Berlin Wall, which served as a longtime symbol of the Curtain and the Cold War era.