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The '''Atlantic Charter''' was a declaration for [[free trade]] and self-determination.   
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The '''Atlantic Charter''' was an August 14, 1941 manifesto by the U.S. and Britain for postwar peace calling for 8 goals, especially [[free trade]] and self-determination of nations.  Territorial gains from the war were renounced; it opposed territorial changes that "do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned"; respected the right of all people to choose their form of government; sought the restoration of sovereignty to those nations that had been "forcibly deprived of it"; sought free access for all nations to trade and raw materials and freedom of movement on the oceans; sought international cooperation (without mention of anything like the defunct League of Nations); called for higher living standards and freedom from fear and want; sought disarmament after the war; and promised to destroy Nazi tyranny.
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[[File:At-charter.jpg|thumb|290px|Public opinion across the world welcomed the Charter]]
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U.S. President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] and British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] met in Newfoundland at the ''Atlantic Conference'' August 9–12, 1941, in order to set long-term peace goals. They called for the destruction of Nazi tyranny (Germany  had just declared war against the [[Soviet Union]]) but did not call for [[regime change]]. They also called on Japan to withdraw from Indochina. Britain at the time was at war with Germany; the U.S. was at peace, but was heavily engaged in supplying war materials and money to Britain and the Soviet Union.
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U.S. [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt]] and British [[Minister]] [[Winston Churchill]] met in the [[Atlantic Ocean]] on August 1941 in order to begin to plan for [[peace]] after the conclusion of [[World War II]], and agreed to this Atlantic Charter.  It also endorsed [[disarmament]] of aggressor states (e.g., [[Japan]] and [[Germany]]) and freedom of the seas.  The [[United States]] and [[Great Britain]] renounced any territorial ambitions, and expansion against the wishes of local populations was condemned.
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==Inter-Allied conference==
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The [[Soviet Union]] soon endorsed the Atlantic Charter and it later provided the ideological foundation for the [[United Nations]].{{fact}}
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On September 24, 1941, a month after the Atlantic Charter was proclaimed, an inter-allied meeting was held in St. James Palace in London.  Mr. Maisky, the Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain, said :
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:"The Soviet was and is guided in its foreign policy by the principle of the self-determination of nations. Accordingly the Soviet defends the right of every nation to the independence and territorial integrity of its country and its right to establish such a social order as it deems opportune and necessary for the promotion of its economic and cultural prosperity."<ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Flynn, 1948, Book 3, Chapter 9, Section 2, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/The_Roosevelt_Myth-John_T_Flynn-1948-444pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=276&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 ''Roosevelt's Great Design and Casablanca'']. pg. 343 pdf.</ref>
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The [[Soviet Union]] soon endorsed the Atlantic Charter.  This was two years and one week after the Soviet Union violated the territorial integrity of Poland and the [[Baltic states]] under the [[Communazi pact]], less than two years after the Soviet Union's expulsion from the [[League of Nations]] for violating the territorial integrity of [[Finland]],<ref>[http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1939/391214a.html League of Nations Expulsion of the USSR], League of Nations, ''Official Journal'' December 14, 1939, p. 506 (Council Resolution); p. 540 (Assembly Resolution.)</ref> and seven years after the Soviet invasion of the Chinese province of [[Sinkiang]] <ref>[http://home.comcast.net/~markconrad/Sinkiang.htm#_ednref9 From “Yellow Russia” to the East Turkestan Republic], By Pavel Aptekar.  From Aleksandr Kiyan’s Russian-language website devoted to the Red Army of Workers and Peasants, 1918-1945 (home page at http:// rkka.ru), specifically the article [http://rkka.ru/oper/sinc/sinc.htm  ''Ot Zheltorossii do Vostochno-Turkestanskoi respuliki,''].  See also [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/China.html#PRC Kiangsi Soviet Republic], 1 Dec 1931 - 15 Oct 1934.</ref>
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The alliance was indeed formed four months later, after Pearl Harbor.
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Leaders in exile of the Baltic States who were attacked by the Soviet Union interpreted the Atlantic Charter as a guaranty of the restoration of their independence
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after the war. Nationalists in the British colonies in Africa and Asia used the terms of the Atlantic Charter, which promised to restore sovereignty and self-government to those who had been "forcibly deprived of them," to pressure the British government on the question of decolonization when the war ended.
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Officially the original "Atlantic Charter" was really just a press release; it was not a [[treaty]] which would require [[Senate]] approval, nor was it signed by anyone.  The vague policies it formulated echoed the [[Fourteen Points]] issued by [[Woodrow Wilson]] in 1918, and evolved into the [[United Nations Charter]] in 1945. However, there was no mention of an international organization in 1941. Even so, isolationists denounced it as too favorable to Britain, and darkly warned that there probably were secret commitments made.<ref>Roosevelt obtained assurances from the British that they had made no secret commitments to anyone, and would not make any without consulting Roosevelt first.</ref> There were no secret commitments.  Public opinion in America was generally favorable, but British public opinion was disappointed that the Americans would continue to stay out of the war.
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==Further reading==
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* Brinkley, Douglas, and David R. Facey-Crowther, eds. ''The Atlantic Charter'' (1994), articles by scholars. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312089309 excerpts and text search]
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* Dobson, Alan P. "Economic Diplomacy at the Atlantic Conference." ''Review Of International Studies'' 1984 10(2): 143-163.
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* Langer, William L. and S. Everett Gleason. ''The Undeclared War: 1940-41'' (1953), pp 663–92; semi-official U.S. history
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* Wilson, Theodore A. ''The First Summit: Roosevelt and Churchill at Placentia Bay, 1941'' (1991)
    
==References==
 
==References==
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<references/>
 
<references/>
    
[[Category:World War II]]
 
[[Category:World War II]]
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[[Category:International Relations]]
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