Roosevelt's and Churchill's Atlantic Charter: A Risky Meeting at Sea that Saved Democracy

by Michael I. Kluger

Overview

Winston Churchill was no stranger to storms. They had engulfed him in various ways throughout his long career and he had always turned to face them with jutting jaw and indomitable spirit. Dark clouds had hovered over him from the moment he became Britain's Prime Minister in May 1940. Now, fifteen harrowing months later, he was setting out to meet President Franklin Roosevelt, the one man who could offer real assistance in his hour of need. And another storm awaited—this time one of a meteorological kind as his ship, HMS Prince of Wales, ran into a howling gale within hours of leaving its base at Scapa Flow.

After five days, the coast of Newfoundland hove into view and Britain's Prime Minister was piped aboard USS Augusta at Placentia Bay to meet with FDR. The meeting produced a document, strangely never signed, called The Atlantic Charter—an eight-point agreement designed to act as a guide for how the world's nations should behave towards each other in the post-war years. Many of the principles laid out in this document are incorporated into the Charter of the United Nations.

In this book, the authors explain how this document came into being—bits of it being scrawled out on scraps of paper over dinner—and delve into the lives of the two most prominent and influential figures of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526786302
Publisher:	Naval Institute Press
Publication date:	01/15/2021
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

RICHARD EVANS was born in Paris of British parents at the outset of World War II and fled the German occupation in June 1940. He served two years National Service, rising to Acting Captain in the British Army and then resumed a career in journalism. Evans has written 22 books. He lives in Delray Beach, Florida.

MICHAEL KLUGER graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut where he earned a BA in history While at Trinity he was awarded the George B. Cooper Prize in British History. Mr. Kluger also attended the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business where he was awarded an MBA in finance. Kluger lives in Palm Beach, Florida.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

Part I The Action 1

Chapter 1 Atlantic Voyage 3

Chapter 2 Arrival in Newfoundland 11

Chapter 3 The Atlantic Charter 21

Chapter 4 On The Waves - Homeward Bound 27

Part II The Actors 31

Chapter 5 The Young Roosevelt 33

Chapter 6 President! Overcoming the Odds 55

Chapter 7 Churchill - A Lust for Danger 73

Chapter 8 Ignored, Humiliated, and Finally Acclaimed 99

Chapter 9 Harry Hopkins 131

Chapter 10 General George Marshall 141

Chapter 11 Freeman and Beaverbrook: A Turbulent Partnership 151

Chapter 12 Sumner Welles 157

Chapter 13 Sir Alexander Cadogan 165

Chapter 14 Randolph Churchill 173

Epilogue 193

Bibliography 197

Index 199

Editorial Reviews

"Roosevelt's and Churchill's Atlantic Charter is a masterful account, indeed a brilliant narrative, of two great, great men cemented together in innumerable ways negotiating an extremely urgent episode fraught with unfathomable danger, if only Hitler knew, to determine the fate of the civilized world." --Argunners

"The authors' prose is elegant." --Military History

From the Publisher