CFR

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

"Don't forget the real business of the War is buying and selling." (Gravity's Rainbow, p. 105)

Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy (1977)
by Laurence H. Shoup & William Minter

https://swprs.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/cfr_imperial_brain_trust.pdf

" ... In April 1941 the group suggested to the government that a statement of American war aims should now be prepared, coldly warning:

If war aims are stated which seem to be concerned solely with Anglo-American imperialism, they will offer little to people in the rest of the world, and will be vulnerable to Nazi counterpromises. Such aims would also strengthen the most reactionary elements in the United States and the British Empire. The interests of other peoples should be stressed, not only those of Europe, but also of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This would have a better propaganda effect.

Since such propaganda statements had to be at least close to actual American interests, the war aims declaration had to be vague and abstract, not specific. The statement which resulted was the Atlantic Charter of August 1941. It was the public war aims statement of the United States, and its reason for being was propaganda.The generalized aims it advocated were those which people everywhere would agree were laudable: freedom, equality, prosperity, and peace ..." (pp. 162-163)