A special relationship: Roosevelt and Churchill vow to ‘destroy Nazi tyranny.’

The Atlantic Charter, August 1941 (part 3): a special relationship

By David Semple

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,

Seem here no painful inch to gain,

For back, through creeks and inlets making,

Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,

When daylight comes, comes in the light;

In front the sun climbs, how slowly!

But westward, look, the land is bright!

These lines, from the poem “Say Not The Struggle Naught Availeth” by Arthur Hugh Clough, were spoken by Winston Churchill  in a radio broadcast on April 27 1941. Churchill told his radio listeners that the United States was “very closely bound up to us now” and introduced the above lines as words which were “apt and appropriate to our fortunes tonight” and would be so judged “wherever the English language is spoken or the flag of freedom flies.”

In the first fifteen months of his premiership, Churchill set himself a task which no other statesman of his time could have accomplished. He had managed, step by step, to lure the United States, a neutral country, into actively helping Great Britain to fight the war against Hitlerism.

First, there was the destroyers-for-bases deal; then Lend-Lease; and now, (on board the two ships Augusta and the Prince of Wales at Placentia Bay in August 1941), the announcement of a declaration of common Anglo-American principles for the conduct of the war against the Nazi tyranny. Churchill and Roosevelt also set out a democratic and liberal vision of the type of world which they wanted to see  created following the destruction of Hitlerism.

From the very first day of this secret Anglo-American conference off the coast of Newfoundland, Roosevelt was anxious that the two countries should draw up a joint declaration “laying down certain broad principles which should guide our policies along the same road.” Churchill presented the President a tentative draft of this policy document, intended to link Britain’s war aims with the aspirations of the United States, on Sunday.

As Churchill wrote in his war memoirs, “The profound and far-reaching importance of what came to be called ‘Atlantic Charter’ was apparent. The fact alone of the United States, still technically neutral, joining with a belligerent Power in making such a declaration was astonishing. The inclusion in it of a reference to ‘the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny’ amounted to a challenge which in ordinary times would have implied warlike action.”

The next day, Churchill and Roosevelt continued their formal discussions. They agreed to the implementation a new American naval commitment, wherein the US Navy would take over from Britain all Atlantic patrols between Iceland and the United States. They also agreed that they would use all their efforts to pressure Japan from making any further aggressive moves in the Pacific theatre. Churchill and Roosevelt sent a message to the Japanese government, warning them that “any further encroachment by Japan in the South-West Pacific would produce a situation in which the United States Government would be compelled to take counter-measures” against Japan.

Roosevelt drafted a paragraph pledging to create an “effective international organization” which would give all nations security “within their own boundaries…without fear of lawless assault or the need to maintain burdensome armaments.” Britain’s War Cabinet insisted on the inclusion of a clause on the need to improve “labour standards, economic advancement and social security” during the postwar era. Churchill added a sentence to the final draft calling for “a world at peace” after “the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny”. This was very important. The United States was officially a neutral power, yet Roosevelt was committing himself to the defeat of Germany.

In the Atlantic Charter, Britain and the United States pledged themselves to “no aggrandisement, territorial or other” as a result of winning the war, in addition to introducing territorial changes “that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned.” They also committed themselves to “respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they do wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.”

Roosevelt and Churchill formally approved the document on Thursday August 14 1941. The eight principal points of the Charter were:

no territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom;

territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned;

all people had a right to self-determination;

trade barriers were to be lowered;

there was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare;

the participants would work for a world free of want and fear;

the participants would work for freedom of the seas;

there was to be disarmament of aggressor nations, and a post-war common disarmament.

Churchill, who wanted a permanent “Grand Alliance” between Great Britain and the United States, was pleased with the “realism of the last paragraph, where there was a plain and bold intimation that after the war the United States would join with us in policing the world until the establishment of a better order.” The Americans had other ideas, however. They certainly wanted the defeat of Hitler, but did not under any circumstances want to prop up the British Empire. Churchill proclaimed that he did not become prime minister to bring about the end of the British Empire. In fact, that is exactly what he did; he sold the world hegemony of the British Empire to the United States. America essentially took over Britain’s role and Churchill made easy the transition from two centuries of Pax Britannia to a new century of Pax Americana. Most important of all, the United States and Great Britain finally ended the long history of hostility and mutual distrust between friendly but rival powers, which had governed Anglo-American relations for the one hundred and sixty five years between the Declaration of Independence and the Atlantic Charter.

In August 1941, America and Britain at last put aside their historic differences to unite together in creating a new postwar world in which the principles of Anglo-American liberty and democracy should govern the rest of mankind. The Atlantic Charter was actually called the “Joint Declaration by the President and the Prime Minister”. But the British newspaper Daily Herald called it “the Atlantic Charter.” Churchill used that name when he spoke in the House of Commons upon his return to London. The British War Cabinet approved the terms of the document, although it was never formally passed by Congress in the United States. In Churchill’s account of the Yalta Conference he quotes Roosevelt saying of the unwritten British constitution that “it was like the Atlantic Charter – the document did not exist, yet all the world knew about it.”

Britain’s allies against Nazi Germany all formally endorsed the Atlantic Charter, including the governments-in-exile, the Soviet Union and the Free French. They later signed another document on January 1 1942, called the Declaration by the United Nations, after the United States formally entered the war, in which they agreed to continue to fight for “a victory over Hitlerism” without any ally making a separate peace with any of their enemies. The United Nations document incorporated the “purposes and principles” of the Atlantic Charter.

Churchill had some reservations about the final draft of the Atlantic Charter. For instance, it was agreed between Roosevelt and Churchill that the clause regarding “self-determination” would not apply to Africa and Asia; in other words, they would not apply to the British Empire. The United States, however, was never going to fight a war for the preservation of the British Empire or any other European empire, French, Dutch or Belgian. After the war, the United States, under presidents Truman and Eisenhower, applied all possible pressure on its allies to bring an end to the colonial empires of Europe. After all, the American War of Independence was a war against imperialism.

Churchill left Placentia Bay with some important commitments made by the United States, the most important of which covered the protection of convoys across the Atlantic. Roosevelt had agreed that his escort ships would be given orders “to attack any U-boat which showed itself, even if these were two hundred or three hundred miles away from the convoy.”

Roosevelt told Churchill that he “would wage war, but not declare it,” and that America “would become more and more provocative.” He also told Churchill that if the Germans “did not like it they could attack American forces.” Churchill told the War Cabinet that Roosevelt “made it clear that he would look for an ‘incident’ which would justify him in opening hostilities.”

As Churchill said farewell to the crew of the Prince of Wales at Scapa Flow on August 18, he declared, “We have brought back a means of waging more effective war and surer hope of final and speedy victory.” The men of the Prince of Wales would not live to see that final victory. Their ship was sunk off the coast of Malaysia, torpedoed by Japanese ships, less than four months after leaving Placentia Bay, only three days after Pearl Harbor, on December 10 1941.

The United States did not enter the war that summer. But Churchill had got everything he needed out of Roosevelt, short of an American declaration of war, over the fifteen months since becoming prime minister. He knew that it was only a matter of time before America would join the crusade against Hitlerism. In that regard, the trip to Placentia Bay was a success.

The Atlantic Charter went on to became the most important declaration of principles in the 20th century, principles which still shape our world in the 21st century. The post-war world we live in today was born during that week in Placentia Bay, off the coast of Newfoundland, the island which was both the foundation stone of the English-speaking New World, and the island where the British Empire began its life.

Most important of all, the special relationship between the British people and the American people was born on the Prince of Wales on August 10 1941. Today, that special relationship is stronger than ever. British and American friendship had a cooling off after the end of the Second World War. Truman wanted to avoid any permanent alliances after 1945. But the advent of the Cold War quickly made the Americans come to their senses. Thus, the Marshall Plan and the formation of Nato brought Americans away from developing any more ideas they may have got about retreating into isolationism for a second time. Moreover, the West has lived under the protective umbrella of the American nuclear deterrent since the Second World War.

The special relationship suffered somewhat during the Eisenhower years. Since the days of President Kennedy, however, Britain and the United States have remained the closest of allies, in particular during the Thatcher-Reagan years and the Blair-Bush years. George W Bush, in a joint sitting of Congress which was attended by Tony Blair immediately after 9/11, declared, “America has no truer friend than Great Britain.” Recently, President Obama asserted, “The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is enduring, and the United Kingdom’s membership in Nato remains a vital cornerstone of US foreign, security, and economic policy.”

This special relationship was created by Winston Churchill, who succeeded, at the most dangerous moment in European history, in convincing the United States to become the policeman of the world and the successor to Britain in carrying the torch of freedom across the globe.

[Parts 1 and 2 of this article by David Semple can be found here and here.]

David Semple is a Manchester Tory and film maker/broadcaster from Canada. He is currently writing a book called Jerusalem and the Fall of British Imperialism. With JMA’s Richard Mather he is co-writing a radio play called Jerusalem 2017: Imperial Sunset.