Presidential Statement of the Day
By Franklin Roosevelt, statement on Bastille Day, 14 July 1943:
The fourteenth of July is, for all the peoples of the world, devoted to the ideals of Liberty, a day of celebration. We observe it this year, here in the United States, with special fervor. Immortal France has reaffirmed once again, in the most heroic circumstances, her greatness and her glory.
On this anniversary of the winning by the French people of their liberties, I wish to recall again that the fundamental principles which guide our democracies were evolved from the American and the French Revolutions. The keystone of our democratic structure is the principle which places governmental authority in the people, and in the people only. There can be one symbol only for Frenchmen- France herself. She transcends all parties, personalities, and groups: They live indeed only in the glory of French nationhood.
One of our war aims, as set forth in the Atlantic Charter, is to restore the mastery of their destinies to the peoples now under the invaders’ yoke. There must be no doubt, anywhere, of the unalterable determination of the United Nations to restore to the oppressed peoples their full and sacred rights.