Summary

March 6, 2015 EIR International 25

Documentation

The Atlantic Charter

The official text of the Atlantic Charter, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill on Aug. 14, 1941, aboard ship in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.

The President of the United States and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing H.M. Govern- ment in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common prin- ciples in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.

1. Their countries seek no aggrandizement, territo- rial or other.

2. They desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned.

3. 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 forc- ibly deprived of them.

4. They will endeavour with due respect for their ex- isting obligations, to further 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.

5. They desire to bring about the fullest collabora- tion between all nations in the economic field, with the object of securing for all improved labour standards, economic advancement, and social se- curity.

6. After the final destruction of 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 the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want. 7. Such a peace should enable all men to

traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance.

8. They believe all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiri- tual reasons, must come to the aban- donment 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 be- lieve, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of gen- eral security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measures which will lighten for peace-loving peo- ples the crushing burden of arma- ment.

U.S. Navy

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left foreground), seated alongside Prime Minister Winston Churchill, aboard the HMS Prince of Wales during the Atlantic Charter Conference. The Charter set the guidelines for what would later become the United Nations.