Beschreibung:

CHURCHILL, WINSTON, Prime Minister of Great Britain and FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, President . Printed menu signed ("Franklin D Roosevelt" and "W Churchill"), countersigned by other guests (see below); U.S. Flagship Augusta, Ship's Harbor, Newfoundland, 9 August 1941, 3 pages, small 4to, attractively printed in blue and gilt on cream paper, blank page 4 with tape from old mount, otherwise in very fine condition ; [ With :] HAROLD R. STARK. Chief of Naval Operations . Typed note initialed ("HRS") to Harry L. Hopkins, Washington, 1 October 1941, one page, 4to, on Navy Department stationery , presenting the menu to Hopkins, "as a souvenir of our memorable trip." THE FIRST OFFICIAL MEETING OF CHURCHILL AND ROOSEVELT, WHICH PRODUCED THE ATLANTIC CHARTER, THE PRELUDE TO U.S. ENGAGEMENT IN WORLD WAR TWO A remarkable relic of a historic meeting. The menu's first page specifies that the dinner is "in Honor of the Right Honorable Winston Churchill ..and his staff," and is "given by The President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt." A list of guests on page 2 carries the signatures of Roosevelt and Churchill (at the top) and Sumner Wells (Under Secretary of State), Sir Alexander Cadogan, Admiral Harold R. Stark (U.S. Chief of Naval Operations), Sir Alfred D. Pound (Chief of Naval Staff), General George C. Marshall (U.S. Chief of Staff), Sir John G. Dill (Chief of Imperial General Staff), Admiral Ernest J. King (Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet), Sir Wilfrid Freeman (Vice Chief of Air Staff), Major General H.A. ("Hap") Arnold (Chief of Air Corps), W. Averell Harriman, Lord Cherwell and Harry L. Hopkins. After two hard years of war, the British were anxious to see United States role extend further than Roosevelt's "lend-lease" program, while the United States had been inching toward active involvement in the war. Roosevelt wanted this crucial first conference, at the U.S. Naval Base in Argentia Bay, Newfoundland, veiled in the utmost secrecy. All press were excluded. The occasion was clearly a momentous one, and the British party, disembarking from the Prince of Wales received a ceremonious welcome. Roosevelt and Churchill met at lunch on board the Augusta , and their talk was cordial, although Roosevelt was surprised that Churchill had forgotten their only previous meeting, in 1918. Roosevelt invited Churchill and his staff to dinner, requesting particularly that after dinner Churchill address the group on the current military situation. In his after-dinner speech Churchill emphasized the novel character of the war, a "mechanized war, not a war of 1917-1918 where doughboys in the mud and the trenches" fought it out to a stalemate. "This was a mobile war in the air, on the land, at sea" (quoted in J. P. Lash, Roosevelt and Churchill 1939-1941 , New York 1976, p. 395). He recommended a strategy of "blockade, subversion, strategic bombing, and assaults on the enemy's perimeter...[and] argued...for reinforcement of the Near East...and the desirability of a joint warning to Japan backed by a threat of war in order to avert war. Churchill ended with a call for a new League of Nations or similar body to prevent wars in the future." (op. cit.) The principal result of the meeting, during which the British and American staffs held extensive discussions of strategy and long-range planning, was the Atlantic Charter, a joint declaration of principles issued as a press release a few days later. The Charter's eight points spelled out the two allies' highly idealistic objectives for the world "after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny". Often compared to Wilson's Fourteen Points, the Charter laid the foundation for the United Nations Declaration, signed by 26 nations on 1 January 1942, and clearly established the wider goals of the U.S. and Britain in their struggle against Hitler, American participation in that struggle being clearly implicated. Nevertheless, and in spite of the overall success of this first "summit" meeting, the Am