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The Atlantic Charter was negotiated at the Atlantic Conference by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, aboard warships in a secure anchorage at Argentia, Newfoundland (located on Placentia Bay) and was issued as a joint declaration on August 14, 1941. Roosevelt had travelled to Argentia aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta, escorted by the battleship USS Arkansas, the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa and the destroyer USS McDougal, while Churchill made the journey across the Atlantic aboard the battleship HMS Prince of Wales.

The Atlantic Charter established a vision for a post-World War II world, despite the fact the United States had yet to enter the War. The participants hoped in vain that the Soviet Union, since June invaded by her previous ally Nazi Germany, would adhere as well.

In brief, the eight points were:

1. no territorial gains sought by the United States or the United Kingdom;
2. territorial adjustments must conform to the people involved;
3. the right to self-determination of peoples;
4. trade barriers lowered;
5. postwar disarmament;
6. freedom from want and fear;
7. freedom of the seas;
8. an association of nations.

At the subsequent Inter-Allied Meeting in London on September 24, 1941, the governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia, and representatives of General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter.

The Axis Powers interpreted these diplomatic agreements as a potential alliance against them. Adolf Hitler saw it as evidence of collusion between the UK and the USA in an international Jewish conspiracy and agreed to the implementation of the Final Solution before the conclusion of the war in retaliation. In the Japanese Empire, the Atlantic Charter rallied support for the militarists in the government who pushed for a more aggressive approach to the UK and US.

On the other hand, this agreement proved to be one of the first steps to the formation of the United Nations.

Official statements and Government documents indicate that Churchill and FDR signed the Atlantic Charter. No signed copies are known to exist, however. A British writer, H V Morton, who travelled with Churchill's party on the Prince of Wales, states that no signed version ever existed. The document was thrashed out through several drafts, says Morton, and the agreed text was telegraphed to London and Washington. The British War Cabinet replied with its approval and a similar acceptance was telegraphed from Washington. During this process, an error crept into the London text, but this was subsequently corrected.

There was some concern at the time about secrecy and the safety of the British party. Although they joined the Prince of Wales in the greatest secrecy, US journalists had noted the absence of FDR from Washington and tied it in with the "coincidental" absence of Churchill from the House of Commons. The lack of censorship in a country still at peace allowed press speculation. Swiss radio, on the 6th August, reported rumours that the two heads of government were to meet in Canada. All this before the meeting had started, with the risks of U-boat interception en route.

See also

• List of World War II conferences
• Bretton Woods system

External links

• The Atlantic Conference
• BBC News
• The Atlantic Charter (1941) from the U.S. Department of State International Information Programs
• The Atlantic Conference from the Avalon Project
• USS Augusta web site
• U.S. National Archives image of original document

References

• Atlantic Meeting, H V Morton, published by Methuen, 1943

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