FDR Goes to Newfoundland
This week I find myself in Newfoundland, on Canada's extreme east coast, so extreme that it has it's own time zone that's a half-hour later that the Atlantic time zone. Newfoundland (officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador) is Canada's newest province, joining the Canadian confederation in 1949. Before that it was a British colony.
What does any of this have to do with Presidential history? Well it was on this island, in 1941, that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain met in what became known as the Atlantic Conference. The two met aboard a warship Ship Harbour, Newfoundland on August 14th, 1941.There was no formal, legal document entitled "The Atlantic Charter". That term was coined by the London Daily Herald. The agreement set out the goals and aims of the Allied powers concerning the war and the post-war world.
Despite the fact that the United States had not entered the war, FDR and Churchill agreed to eight main points:
1. No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom.
2. Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned.
3. All peoples had a right to self-determination.
4. Trade barriers were to be lowered.
5. There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare.
6. Freedom from want and fear.
7. Freedom of the seas.
8. Disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament.
Later that year, in December of 1941, the United States was drawn into the war by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. And the rest, as they say, is history.
What does any of this have to do with Presidential history? Well it was on this island, in 1941, that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain met in what became known as the Atlantic Conference. The two met aboard a warship Ship Harbour, Newfoundland on August 14th, 1941.There was no formal, legal document entitled "The Atlantic Charter". That term was coined by the London Daily Herald. The agreement set out the goals and aims of the Allied powers concerning the war and the post-war world.
Despite the fact that the United States had not entered the war, FDR and Churchill agreed to eight main points:
1. No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom.
2. Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned.
3. All peoples had a right to self-determination.
4. Trade barriers were to be lowered.
5. There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare.
6. Freedom from want and fear.
7. Freedom of the seas.
8. Disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament.
Later that year, in December of 1941, the United States was drawn into the war by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. And the rest, as they say, is history.