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
