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To develop friendly relations among nations and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.

~ Washington Conference on International Organization @Dumbarton Oaks 1944

Dumbarton Oaks Conversations (1944)

In the late summer and early fall of 1944, at the height of the Second World War, a series of important diplomatic meetings took place at Dumbarton Oaks, resulting in the United Nations charter that was adopted in San Francisco in 1945.

These meetings were officially known as the Washington Conversations on International Organization, Dumbarton Oaks.  Delegations from China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States deliberated over proposals for the establishment of an organization to maintain peace and security in the world.  

Among the representatives were Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989); US Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1871–1955); Wellington Koo (1887–1985), Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom; and Edward Wood (the Earl of Halifax) (1872–1959), British Ambassador to the United States, each of whom chaired his respective delegation.

 

Photo of Dumbarton Oaks Gardens, Library and Museum, Washington, DC

The Dumbarton Oaks

Gardens, Library and Museum

1703 32nd Street, NW, Washington, DC  20007

GPS Coordinates:  38.914644, -77.06421

 

Dumbarton Oaks Marker at Entrance

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection is an institute in Washington, DC, administered by the Trustees for Harvard University.  It supports research and learning internationally in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies through fellowships and internships, meetings, and exhibitions.

Located in residential Georgetown, Dumbarton Oaks welcomes researchers at all career stages who come to study its books, objects, images, and documents.  It opens its doors to the public to visit its historic Gardens, designed by Beatrix Farrand; its Museum, with world-class collections of art; and its Music Room, for lectures and concerts.

The institute disseminates knowledge through its own publications (such as Dumbarton Oaks Papers and symposium volumes) as well as through the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (published by Harvard University Press).  Dumbarton Oaks also makes accessible ever more of its resources freely online.

The Washington Conference on International Organization was held at Dumbarton Oaks from August 21, through October 7, 1944.

“The stated purposes of the proposed international organization were:

“1. To maintain international peace and security; and to that end to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace and the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means adjustment or settlement of international disputes which may lead to a breach of the peace;

“2. To develop friendly relations among nations and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;

“3. To achieve international co-operation in the solution of international economic, social and other humanitarian problems; and

“4. To afford a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the achievement of these common ends.”

~Pamphlet No. 4, PILLARS OF PEACE –Documents Pertaining To American Interest In Establishing A Lasting World Peace: January 1941-February 1946 Published by the Book Department, Army Information School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., May 1946

 

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