FULTON, Mo. (CN) — Rebecca Morgan looked out the window of her secondhand bookstore on this town’s historic main street and whispered her fear about what a new Donald Trump presidency could bring.
“World War III is what I’m concerned about, to be completely honest,” Morgan said in a hush, as though she’d surprised herself for uttering such a thought. “I don’t see Trump doing any good in this country and the world.”
Morgan’s fears reverberated a mood of pessimism about the state of world affairs — and America’s role in them — among people in this small Midwestern town famous as the location of Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech. He delivered “The Sinews of Peace” speech on March 5, 1946, when he first used the term to describe how the Soviet Union and Moscow’s influence was descending over Europe.
A bit farther down Fulton’s main street, Nancy Lewis and Bob Wise, curators of the well-stocked county historical museum, also expressed deep concern about the future and America’s ability to lead in a world haunted by wars in Europe and the Middle East and facing catastrophic climate change.
“I think our role is decreasing,” Lewis said about U.S. power. “We are still very important, I think, in terms of world affairs, but we get into things that we shouldn’t be into. But I think our role is definitely decreasing.”
Sitting across from her and surrounded by Civil War memorabilia, Wise nodded in agreement. Besides being famous for Churchill’s speech, Fulton is proud of its Civil War record as Confederate rebels who held out against federal troops and negotiated a peace term, events that gave the county its nickname, “The Kingdom of Callaway.”
“I don’t think we have the influence that we once had with other countries,” Wise said. “I think that when you look at Israel right now, that’s a prime example. We’ve asked them to do this or this or this or that to get the hostages back, and [we] can’t get the cooperation.”
“Part of it is, we’ve lost respect from a lot of the people in other countries,” Wise said.
Lewis said: “We have just allowed our own country to decrease our military. When we were, I think, way more powerful, we had a pretty good military to back that power, and that money has been spent elsewhere.”
The weight of history — and America’s role in it — hangs in the air over Fulton thanks to Westminster College, a private university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church that’s been bringing famous people here to speak about international affairs since 1937.
The string of historical figures who’ve delivered speeches is impressive. Among them were Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, James Baker III, Ralph Nader and Bernie Sanders.
Churchill’s speech, though, remains the most famous. Westminster College has dedicated itself to honoring the memory of Britain’s wartime prime minister.
In the 1960s, the college relocated a 17th-century London church that lay in ruins after being bombed by Germany in World War II. Stone by stone, the church was transferred by ship and train from London to Fulton. Today, the beautifully reassembled and renovated church stands at the entrance to Westminster College. A museum dedicated to Churchill’s life is housed underneath the church, drawing visitors year-round.
At the museum across town from the main street, Tom Reth, an 82-year-old retired military colonel and Vietnam veteran, and his wife were among a group of pensioners from Missouri visiting America’s National Churchill Museum. Along with the tour, they were strolling through history contemplating war and peace.
“I feel badly,” Reth said, thinking about the bloodshed and horrors civilians are suffering in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“Having served 28 years in the military and been shot at, I understand that war is hell and you have to get it over with. If you’re going to fight, you got to get it over with quickly,” he said.
With that in mind, the retired Army Corps of Engineers colonel lamented that U.S. President Joe Biden has not been forceful enough with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Hamas, the Palestinian political and militant group.
“We as a member of the NATO alliance should have been strong enough to tell — and had enough balls — to tell Russia, ‘Stop that war or we’re all going to take care of you, bomb the shit out of Russia,’” Reth said. “But nobody had enough balls to do that.”
“Same thing with the Israelis and Hamas,” he added.
“Vietnam went on for six or seven years. That was terrible. Who got killed? Vietnamese civilians,” he said. “And North Vietnam Cong and 58,000 people who looked like me — some of them had dark skin.”
He said America must act with strength on the world stage and he said Biden had shown meekness.
“If we have Kamala Harris president, it’s going to be continuing what Joe Biden did: ‘Please stop.’ You have to say ‘please,’” Reth said with irony.
“Trump may be a little more aggressive. And I think he probably could have twisted Putin’s arm and said, ‘Stop this nonsense or we’re going to get involved.’ He might have done that,” he said.
For Reth, Ukraine should have attacked Russia at the start of the war. He surmised Ukraine’s recent invasion onto Russian soil has come too late.
“They didn’t pursue what they’re doing right now: attack Russia, kill Russians on Russian soil, bomb the Kremlin,” he said. “Hey, why not? But they didn’t do it. The Ukrainians missed the boat.”
The tragedy, Reth said, was that so many Ukrainians and Palestinians have suffered “because America did not stand up and say, ‘stop this crap or we’re going to get involved.’”
But this upcoming presidential election, he said, presented a dilemma because he disliked both Harris and Trump.
“I’m still debating who to vote for. I can’t vote for Harris, too far left. Trump, I might have to,” he said. “Trump is someone who — I don’t like the guy, he doesn’t have any morals — but he may be a good leader. He may be the leader who gets things done.”
He said America must take leadership in global affairs, especially now with allies in Europe showing themselves to be weak. He cited this summer’s inconclusive elections in France and a spate of anti-Muslim riots in the United Kingdom.
“I don’t put a lot of faith in NATO or Europe,” he said.
“I admire people like Churchill and (Dwight D.) Eisenhower. Standing up and making tough decisions. Someone’s got to,” he said, casting a glance over the World War II displays surrounding him. “We haven’t had any strong leaders.”
Back on the main street, Lewis and Wise shook their heads at the chaos in the world and how America’s own failings are feeding into that chaos: Famine in Gaza, climate change, a 24-hour news cycle, media bias and sensationalism, misinformation, toxic partisanship, poor leadership, rising poverty.
“I see us almost as a laughing stock for other countries, just because we can’t get anything done, because it’s got to be my way or it doesn’t happen,” Lewis said.
She added: “And that’s the big concern to me with our political parties at this point, because there’s so much animosity.”
Wise agreed with his colleague.
“I think a lot of it comes from our own divisiveness in our own government,” he said.
Wise struggled to define what America’s role should be in the world but he suggested it should step back from trying to hold so much sway over international affairs.
“We’ve set ourselves up to where we tend to expect other countries to jump and do what we want them to, instead of letting them make their own decisions and their own mistakes or their own correct decisions,” he said. “We’re just trying to meddle in some areas we just don’t have a place.”
Fear of America getting involved in a major war over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was high on his mind.
“The whole area, the Middle East, it’s all kind of a tinderbox just waiting,” he said. “We’re moving all these assets, ships and stuff, into the area. One little mistake and we’re in a big time war.”
Lewis wasn’t so sure that the U.S. needs to step back.
“What happens if America is totally out of it?” she said. “You have Brazil, and you have Pakistan, and you have all of these [other powers], they’re not going to get along. So, you almost need someone that is kind of trying to stabilize. And the United Nations has not done a very good job of that, I don’t believe.”
Wise, though, was worried about events careening into deeper trouble.
“I think we are on the precipice of a new Cold War. I don’t know that we’re there yet, but I think we’re right on the edge,” he said. “I don’t think it would take much to push us into another Cold War. And I don’t see that as good for any of us other than the arms manufacturers.”
The world, he said, needs more cooperation and less division.
“Probably the more you work together, the better off you are,” he said. “It takes compromise and there is very little compromise in the world right now.”
Back at Well Read Books, Morgan said recent events were upsetting.
“I’ve had to step back from the news a fair amount for my mental health,” she said, holding a book in her lap as jazz music quietly played.
For her, the world will be in much better shape as long as Trump stays out of the White House.
“It just seems like whatever is best for Trump is what he goes with,” she said. “A lot of people here are pulling for Trump. But I haven’t seen near the Trump signs that I did this time in 2020. I kind of wonder if people are starting to get sick of him.”
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.