Existing comment:
Roosevelt, Churchill, and The Atlantic Charter
Roosevelt's White House continued to highlight the Four Freedoms theme throughout the spring of 1941, and when FDR and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met near the coast of Newfoundland that August, the President proposed including them in the resulting Atlantic Charter.
This pivotal policy statement defined Allied goals for the post-war world: no territorial aggrandizement or changes made against the wishes of the people, restoration of self-government to those deprived of it reduction of trade restrictions, global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, abandonment of the use of force, and the disarmament of aggressor nations.
Adherents of the Atlantic Charter signed the Declaration by United Nations on January 1, 1942, establishing the basis for the modern United Nations. Unfortunately, the document did not include freedom of speech and freedom of worship. Though sources within the administration claimed that their omission was a simple oversight, it was a troubling sign that the campaign to promote the president's ideals was not functioning efficiently. Winston Churchill described FDR as the greatest man he had ever known. President Roosevelt's life, Churchill said, "must be regarded as one of the commanding events in human destiny." |