The Essential UN

“If we fail to use it, we shall betray all those who have died so that we might meet here in freedom and safety to create it. If we seek to use it selfishly—for the advantage of any one nation or any small group of nations—we shall be equally guilty of that betrayal.”

The Charter of the United Nations which you have just signed is a solid structure upon which we can build a better world. History will honour you for it. Between the victory in Europe and the final victory, in this most destructive of all wars, you have won a victory against war itself. […] With this Charter the world can begin to look forward to the time when all worthy human beings may be permitted to live decently as free people.

the Allies were committed to creating a world in which people “in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want.”