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The Atlantic Charter is one of the key documents of the 20th century and remains still relevant today. President Roosevelt and Primeminister Churchill meet aboard the Prince of Wales on August 9-13, 1941 at Placentia Bay. The Prince of Wales had been badly mauled by Bismark in May. It was to be sunk by a Japanese aerial attack in December. Roosevelt and Churchill issue the Atlantic Charter. The two were war time allies. Britain had weathered the worst that the NAZI Luftwaffe could throw at it. America and Britain were fighting the U-boats in the North Atlantic to keep Britain alive. It was clear that America would soon be drawn into the War. America had already played an important role in keeping Britain alive and the two countries were the only hope of the occupied European and in fact Western civilization itself--threatened by the evil tide of NAZI tyranny. The two leaders, the two most important men of the 20th century, agreed to a simple, but elegant eight-point statement of their aims which today still stands as the central credo of the Atlantic Alliance.
President Roosevelt and Primeminister Churchill meet aboard the Prince of Wales on August 9-13, 1941 at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The Prime Minister had arrived on the Prince of Wales. The President on the cruiser Augusta. The Prime Minister first visted the President on the Augusta, delivering a letter from King George VI. He then briefed the President on Britain's peilous strategic position. The next day on Sunday President Roosevelt attended church services with Prime Minister Churchill onbopard the Prince of Wales. Vhurchill after the services continued his description of the War and the need for American intervention. [Alsop, pp. 180-181.] Out of the discussions emerged the Atlantic Charter. President Wilson's Fourteen Points had provided the ideological basis for the Allied war effort in World War I agree America entered the War. The Atlantic Charter was to state the aims of the world's two great democracies in the upcoming struggle and the peace to follow.
Britain had weathered the Blitz and the worst that the NAZI Luftwaffe could throw at it. America and Britain were fighting the U-boats in the North Atlantic to keep Britain alive. It was clear that America would soon be drawn into the War. America had already played an important role in keeping Britain alive and the two countries were the only hope of the occupied European and in fact Western civilization itself--threatened by the evil tide of NAZI tyranny. The war situation had changed radicall when Hitler ordered Operation Babarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. At the time, however, the Wehrmacht drove deep into the Sovirt Union, smashing whole Russian armies. It was unclear if the Soviets would be able to withstand the onslaught.
The Prince of Wales had been badly mauled by Bismark in May. With Repulse, it was sent to the Pacific to help protect Singapore. It was to be sunk by a Japanese aerial attack in December for ever settling the question as to how vulnerable battleships were to aerial attack.
Roosevelt had met Churchill during World War I, although Churchill did not remember. President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter. The two became close war time allies. This was their first meeting of the two men in the ensuing emergency of World War II. Churchill sailed accroos the Atlantic for the meeting. There would be several more meetings in which these two men would forge an alliance that would save Western ciuilization.
Stalin had been a virtual NAZI ally until Hitler ordered Operation Barbarossa (June 1941). Roosevelt and Churchill tried to involve Stalin in endorsing the Atlantic Charter. Despite the needs for allies, Marshall Joseph Stalin demured at some of the provisions of the Charter.
President Roosevelt's key adviser Harry Hopkins was sent to Britain to lay the groundwork for the meeting. While there he flew to the Soviet Union to meet with Stalin and get a first hand report on Soviet ressistance as well as Soviet needs. (American military experts did not think the Soviets would be able to stop the NAI panzers.) Hopkins got back to Britain just in time to join Churchill on the Prince of Wales. He was not a well man, the flights to and from Russia were very difficult, and he had left his meecine behind in Russia. At the meeting he played a key role. Itvwas imperatuive that a joint statement be issued by the two leaders immediately after the meeting to gain the full publicity and image of joint purpose. A disagreement over trade issues threatened to prevent agreement on the text. Hopkin's genius was his ability to cut to the heart of an issue and he convinced Roosevelt to conceed the text on trade so that agreement coukld bereached on the joint statement. [McJimsey, p. 176-77.]
The two leaders, the two most important men of the 20th century, agreed to a simple, but elegant eight-point statement of their aims which today still stands as the central credo of the Atlantic Alliance.
The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.
First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;
Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them;
Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity;
Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security;
Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;
Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance;
Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measure which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments.
Signed: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston S. Churchill
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill attended church services on Sunday aboard the Prince of Wales. Both Roosevelt and Churchill discussed the service beforehand. Churchill chose his favorite hymn, "O God Our Help In Ages Past," which was sung first. Roosevelt chose "Eternal Father Strong to Save." They also sang "Onward, Christian Soldiers". [Meacham] It was a emotional point in the developing relation between Churchill and Roosevelt and through them Britain and America.
It was not only Stalin that objected to provisions of the Atlantic Charter. Churchill also had concerns, especially as the soaring retoric of freedom if applied to the Empire was troubling. Enlisting the support of the United States for the war effort, however, was primary for the British at the time. Roosevelt was adament. He has stronly endorsed the concept of collective security enshired in the League of Nations. As the water progressed he would conceive of a new organization, the United Nations, to serve as forum to arbitrate disputes and protect of the peace. In fact, the United Nations declaration of January 1, 1942, the countries signing the document pledged to adopt the principles of the Atlantic Charter.
The Atlantic Charter was just a declaration. Hitler senced the propaganda import of the Charter. He instructed Goebbels not to publish it least it give any inspiration to the people of occupied Europe or cause concern with the German public. [Black, p. 656.]
Alsop, Joseph. FDR: A Centenary Rememberance (Viking Press: New York, 1982), 256p.
Black, Conrad. Franklin Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom (Public Affairs: New York, 2003), 1280p.
Brinkley, Douglas. David R. Facey-Crowther (Editor). The Atlantic Charter (Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Series on Diplomatic and Economic History, Vol 8).
Divine, Robert. Roosevelt and World War II (1969).
McGregor Burns, James. Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1970).
McJimsey, George. Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Democracy (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1987), 474p.
Meacham, Jon. Franklin and Winston (Random House, 2003).
Smith, Gaddis. American Diplomacy During the Second World War (1964).
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