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What was the Atlantic Charter?

The Atlantic Charter was a list of peace objectives agreed upon by two Allied leaders, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) and British prime minister Winston Churchill (1874–1965), to be put in place at the end of World War II (1939–45). On August 14, 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill met on board a ship off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and signed the Atlantic Charter. Besides specifying peacetime goals, the charter contained Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, which he had outlined in his speech to the U.S. Congress on January 6, 1941, as the legislative (law-making) body considered passage of the Lend-Lease Act. The Lend-lease Act was a plan under which the United States would extend financial assistance to the Allied powers (Great Britain and France) fighting the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) in World War II. For Roosevelt the freedom of speech and expression, freedom of...

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