1941 W. S. Churchill and F. D. Roosevelt
The Atlantic Charter
August 14.1941
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.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston S. Churchill
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