Analysis: Preamble of the UN Charter

Date: June 26, 1945

Author: Government of the United States, et al.

Genre: charter

Summary Overview

As it became increasingly apparent that Nazi Germany would be defeated at the end of World War II, one of the main topics of discussion among the Big Three leaders of the Allied nations—the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union—was how the peace would be kept after the war. Created in the aftermath of World War I, the League of Nations had been ineffective in its goal to create an international organization through which countries could resolve their differences peacefully. The Big Three, eager to learn from the failure of the League of Nations, held discussions in Tehran, Iran, in 1943 that set the general framework. Over the following year, conferences were held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, DC, focusing on the specifics of the new peacekeeping organization. Finally, from April through June of 1945, delegates from fifty nations met in San Francisco to conclude the charter for the United Nations.

Defining Moment

Early in World War II, before the United States even became involved, Allied leaders like US president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill saw both the weaknesses and the still-unrealized potential of an international group devoted to peace. One of the main weaknesses of the League of Nations had been the unwillingness of the United States to participate in the organization, which US president Woodrow Wilson had himself proposed at the end of World War I. Given the role of the United States as an emerging superpower at the end of World War II, it was more important than ever that it play a key role in another such organization.

The 1941 Atlantic Charter articulated the first vision of what would become the United Nations (UN), and twenty-six nations together issued the Declaration of the United Nations on January 1, 1942—less than a month after the United States entered the war—agreeing to fight the Axis powers and then establish the United Nations once the Axis was defeated. Roosevelt, a Democrat, involved Republicans in the process of creating the UN in order to avoid a repeat of Wilson's failure. Roosevelt's secretary of state, Cordell Hull, worked directly with Congress to build bipartisan consensus around the idea and draft a potential charter for the UN, while Congress passed a number of resolutions stating support for the UN after the war was over. The foreign ministers of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, and the Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union issued the Moscow Declaration in October 1943, officially committing all of the Allies to the idea of the UN.

Throughout late 1944, as the American and British armies executed the D-Day invasion and drove through Europe into the heart of Germany, representatives of the four signatories to the Moscow Declaration met at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, DC, in order to have the plans for the UN prepared for the eventual Axis defeat. The US government even staged a public relations effort, taking the argument for the UN directly to the American people.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Big Three leaders invited representatives of the world's nations to convene next in San Francisco, California, in April 1945 in order to draft the charter that would officially establish the UN. Though Roosevelt died only days before the San Francisco Conference convened, President Harry S. Truman, newly sworn-in, stated that the conference would take place as planned. After two months of work rewriting the proposed charter produced at Dumbarton Oaks, the fifty countries in attendance passed the United Nations Charter.

Author Biography

The “Peoples of the United Nations,” in whose name the United Nations Charter was written, were represented at the San Francisco Conference by 850 delegates from the original member nations. The delegation from the United States was made up of two secretaries of state, Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. and his predecessor, Cordell Hull, as well as representatives from both houses of Congress. Not all of the nations, however, could agree on who would be included. Many of the delegates opposed the Soviet insistence upon—and United States acquiescence to—the inclusion of two of its member republics, the Ukraine and Byelorussia (now Belarus), giving it essentially three votes. Further, the Soviets opposed Argentina's inclusion, as it had supported the Axis during the war, and the Polish government was not seated, as the formation of a new Polish government was a source of discord between the Soviets on one hand and the Americans and British on the other. However, in the end, fifty nations were able to pass the charter and create the UN.

Document Analysis

The Preamble to the United Nations Charter is a brief visionary statement that specified the goals of the fifty nations that met at the San Francisco Conference. In total, it consists of eight statements of principle and a single concluding sentence that officially established the UN. The fact that it is a simple document does not detract from its profundity, as each of the statements was very timely to the delegates at San Francisco. The world was just emerging from its second cataclysmic conflict in thirty years. The failure of the earlier League of Nations, the world's descent into a second world war, and the realization of the horrendous atrocities committed by the Axis powers during the war formed the context for a statement of ideology and commitment to a peaceful future.

The first four statements begin with the words, “We the peoples of the United Nations determined,” before stating the shared resolve to create a peaceful future. The two world wars had brought horrors unlike anything seen in human history, with the widespread use of chemical weapons in World War I and the development and use of atomic weapons in World War II. To eliminate the possibility of a third such war, the delegates committed themselves to saving “succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” The other three statements commit the group to affirming and protecting human rights; ensuring justice and honoring treaties and international law; and promoting “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” This is followed by a set of four ideals to which the nations would commit themselves to further the aims enumerated in the first four statements. Tolerance and peace with other nations is enshrined. The role of the UN as a united body to protect peace and security is recognized. The use of armed force by nations as a tool of policy is discouraged. Finally, the UN's role in “the economic and social advancement of all peoples” is established. The document concludes with a brief statement that the nations “have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.” The lessons of the two world wars were learned well, and the hope was that the UN would be able to prevent the horrors that had characterized so much of the first half of the twentieth century.

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Alger, Chadwick F. The United Nations System: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006. Print.

Hearden, Patrick J. Architects of Globalism: Building a New World Order during World War II. Fayetteville: U of Arkansas P, 2002. Print.

Hoopes, Townsend, & Douglas Brinkley. FDR and the Creation of the UN. New Haven: Yale UP, 1997. Print.

Krasno, Jean E., ed. The United Nations: Confronting the Challenges of a Global Society. Boulder: Rienner, 2004. Print.

Schlesinger, Stephen C. Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations. Boulder: Westview, 2003. Print.