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But unlike Neville Chamberlain, he didn't retreat.
We had a Chamberlain for 8 yrs; in @realDonaldTrump we have a Churchill.
Oh fucking please! I think I just threw up a bit!
Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter in 1941, and that was the end of the empire he had set out to preserve. He may not have appeased Hitler, but he certainly appeased Roosevelt.
British Empire
Public opinion in Britain and the Commonwealth was delighted with the principles of the meetings but disappointed that the U.S. was not entering the war. Churchill admitted that he had hoped the U.S. would finally decide to commit itself.
The acknowledgement that all people had a right to self-determination gave hope to independence leaders in British colonies.[19]
The Americans were insistent that the charter was to acknowledge that the war was being fought to ensure self-determination.[20] The British were forced to agree to these aims but in a September 1941 speech, Churchill stated that the Charter was only meant to apply to states under German occupation, and certainly not to the countries who formed part of the British Empire.[21]
Churchill rejected its universal applicability when it came to the self-determination of subject nations such as British India. Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 wrote to President Roosevelt: "I venture to think that the Allied declaration that the Allies are fighting to make the world safe for the freedom of the individual and for democracy sounds hollow so long as India and for that matter Africa are exploited by Great Britain..."[22] While self-determination was Roosevelt's guiding principle, he was reluctant to place pressure on the British in regard to India and other colonial possessions as they were fighting for their lives in a war in which the United States was not a participant.[23] Gandhi refused to help either the British or the American war effort against Germany and Japan in any way, and Roosevelt chose to back Churchill.[24] India was already contributing significantly to the war effort, sending over 2.5 million men (the largest volunteer force in the world at the time) to fight for the Allies, mostly in West Asia and North Africa.[25]
Poland
Churchill was unhappy with the inclusion of references to peoples' right to "self-determination" and stated that he considered the Charter an "interim and partial statement of war aims designed to reassure all countries of our righteous purpose and not the complete structure which we should build after the victory." An office of the Polish Government in Exile wrote to warn Władysław Sikorski that if the Charter was implemented with regard to national self-determination, it would make the desired Polish annexation of Danzig, East Prussia and parts of German Silesia impossible, which led the Poles to approach Britain asking for a flexible interpretation of the Charter.[26]
Baltic states
During the war Churchill argued for an interpretation of the charter in order to allow the Soviet Union to continue to control the Baltic states, an interpretation rejected by the U.S. until March 1944.[27] Lord Beaverbrook warned that the Atlantic Charter "would be a menace to our [Britain's] own safety as well as to that of the Soviet Union." The U.S. refused to recognise the Soviet takeover of the Baltics, but did not press the issue against Stalin when he was fighting the Germans.[28] Roosevelt planned to raise the Baltic issue after the war, but he died in April 1945, before fighting had ended in Europe.[29]
Some people can write speeches that move a populace to withstand an army that conquered countries in weeks sometimes days, some people have problems writing coherent sentences.
...
Please don't tell me you think you would still have an "empire" today but for the existence of the Atlantic Charter.![]()