Office of the Historian

Hopkins Papers

Draft Declaration of Allied Unity1

January 1, 1942

Declaration by United Nations

A Joint Declaration by the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, China, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia

The Governments signatory hereto,

Having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles [Page 377] embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dated August 14, 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter,

Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world, Declare:

(1)
Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.
(2)
Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.

The foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations or authorities which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.

  1. This draft bears no date but it was presumably prepared at the White House on the morning of January 1, 1942. According to Churchill (The Grand Alliance, p. 683) the title “Declaration by United Nations” was proposed by Roosevelt on the morning of January 1. The draft is otherwise the same as the draft approved by Roosevelt and Churchill on December 30 (ante, p. 375), except that the words “or authorities” were inserted in the final sentence. It was presumably this draft that was discussed with Litvinov at the luncheon meeting on January 1; see ante, p. 151.

    For the text as signed, which omitted the words “or authorities”, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. i, p. 25.

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