Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a declaration for free trade and self-determination.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime 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, self determination, 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.
When Roosevelt returned to Washington he was asked at a conference with Democratic Congressional leaders whether or not he had made any commitments and he replied "No." Roosevelt did not disclose that he had indeed made two grave commitments, one to send American troops into a European island where an attack was expected,[1] and the second to issue to Japan what Secretary of State Cordell Hull characterized as an ultimatum.[2][3] When the Atlantic Charter communique was published it was labeled "A Joint Declaration." The next day however, the New York Times referred to in a headline as "America's Mein Kampf." [4]
The Soviet Union soon endorsed the Atlantic Charter and it later provided the ideological foundation for the United Nations.[Citation Needed]
References
- â Roosevelt and Hopkins : An Intimate History, Robert E. Sherwood, New York Harper and Brothers, 1948, pgs. 288 - 309 pdf.
- â Cordell Hull, Memoirs, New York: Macmillan, 1948.
- â Sumner Welles, Hearings before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, Part II, pps. 479 et seq., and Part XIV containing Exhibits 22A, 22B and 22C, pps. 1255 et seq.
- â The Roosevelt Myth, Book 3, Ch. 5, The Atlantic Charter, John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.