SOURCE A: U.S. Atlantic Charter
1. Their countries seek no aggrandissement, territorial or other.
2. They desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the
peoples concerned.
3. 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.
4. They will endeavor with due respect for their existing obligations, to further 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.
5. 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.
6. After the final destruction of Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to
all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford
assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want.
7. Such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance.
8. They believe all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well spiritual reasons, must come to the
abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea, or air
armaments 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 measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the
crushing burden of armament."
SOURCE B: The Lend Lease Act
The plan proposed by FDR was to "lend-lease or otherwise dispose of arms" and other supplies
needed by any country whose security was vital to the defense of the United States. In support of the
bill, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the
debate over lend-lease, "We are buying . . . not lending. We are buying our own security while we
prepare. By our delay during the past six years, while Germany was preparing, we find ourselves
unprepared and unarmed, facing a thoroughly prepared and armed potential enemy." Following two
months of debate, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, meeting Great Britain’s deep need for
supplies and allowing the United States to prepare for war while remaining officially neutral.
SOURCE C: Excerpts from FDR’s Four Freedoms Speech
...
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded
upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in
the world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic
understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its
inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide
reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will
be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere
in the world.
SOURCE D: Dr. Seuss Political Cartoon
SOURCE E: Transcription for “In the Footsteps of Washington” Political Cartoon
There was a strong popular movement for neutrality because U.S. involvement in World
War I was still fresh on many people's minds. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's
internationalist approach was seen as going against the views of a majority of Americans,
leading to the attempt to pass the Ludlow Amendment, a bill that would have placed the
power to declare war in the hands of the people. This editorial cartoon depicts how the
United States was struggling to stay out of European affairs and alliances because they
could lead to involvement in war.
SOURCE F: Political Cartoon of U.S. acts of neutrality
SOURCE G: Newspaper Headline
SOURCE H: Map of Japanese Aggression
SOURCE I: Japanese Occupation of French Indochina
July 21, 2941: Japan occupied southern French Indochina. Ten days later American intelligence intercepted and
decoded a message from the Japanese Foreign Ministry to foreign diplomats all over the world.
Commercial and economic relations between Japan and third countries, led by England and the United
States, are gradually becoming so horribly strained that we cannot endure it much longer. Consequently,
our Empire, to save its very life, must take measures to secure the raw materials of the South Seas. Our
Empire must immediately take steps to break asunder this ever-strengthening chain of encirclement
which is being woven under the guidance and with the participation of England and the United States,
acting like a cunning dragon seemingly asleep. This is why we decided to obtain military bases in
French Indo-China and to have our troops occupy that territory....
SOURCE J: U.S. place an embargo on oil supplies to Japan
SOURCE K. Winston Churchill on the Battle of Britain
“The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the
guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger,
are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so
much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own
eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber
squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks,
often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows
upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the
weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion
and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain…”
-
Prime Minister Winston Churchill, 1940
SOURCE L. German Invasion of Poland