January 1, 1942

Declaration by United Nations

The Allied “Big Four” sign the Declaration by United Nations

The document that named a global coalition was two substantive promises long, and on the day itself only four men signed it — in Roosevelt's private study.

Four signatures in a White House study

On 1 January 1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Soviet ambassador Maxim Litvinov and Chinese foreign minister T. V. Soong signed the Declaration by United Nations in Roosevelt's White House study.

The other 22 original signatories signed the following day at the State Department, completing the group of 26. The instrument is dated 1 January, which is why many summaries put all 26 signatures on that day; the contemporary State Department memorandum records the times of the 2 January signatures.

This was the first official use of the name 'United Nations,' a term Roosevelt proposed for the anti-Axis coalition.

Two promises

Each government pledged to employ its full military and economic resources against the Tripartite Pact members and adherents with which it was at war — a qualification that mattered, since the Soviet Union was not yet at war with Japan.

Each also pledged to cooperate with the other signatories and not to make a separate armistice or peace.

The declaration endorsed the Atlantic Charter's common programme and stated that complete victory was necessary to defend life, liberty, independence, religious freedom, human rights and justice.

What it was not

'United Nations' meant the wartime coalition, not the organization founded under the 1945 Charter. Twenty-one more states adhered later in the war.

Nor did it establish unconditional surrender: refusing a separate peace is a different commitment, and Roosevelt and Churchill announced the unconditional-surrender policy at Casablanca in January 1943.

Free France's absence was not simply a matter of occupation — eight occupied European countries signed through governments in exile.

Sources

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What the sources leave uncertain

The instrument itself is dated January 1, and many institutional summaries consequently say all 26 governments signed that day. The contemporary State Department memorandum records that the Big Four signed January 1 and lists the other 22 signatures, with exact times, on January 2.