The Atlantic Charter
Issued 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 dwel- ling 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 arm- aments 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.
authored by Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston S. Churchill
