Speak­ing of the Unit­ed Nations, in his “Iron Cur­tain” speech in 1946, Churchill said: “We must make sure that its work is fruit­ful, that it is a real­i­ty and not a sham, that it is a force for action, and not mere­ly a froth­ing of words, that it is a true tem­ple of peace in which the shields of many nations can some day be hung up, and not mere­ly a cock­pit in a Tow­er of Babel.” (The Tow­er depict­ed by Alexan­der Mikhalchyk, Cre­ative Commons)