It was designed in October 1942 by Brooks Harding (who was inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech of January 1941), and it had some degree of use as a flag from 13 June 1943 to c. 1948 to represent the "United Nations" in the sense of the January 1942 Declaration by United Nations.

Brooks B. Harding (1896–1959), an American,[1] made the acquaintance of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in December 1941 by presenting each with a Victory V symbol embossed in leather with the slogan Absolute Victory by delivery at the White House at a time when Churchill was in the United States for the Arcadia Conference to sign the Declaration by United Nations.

Upon meeting with Dr. Vladimir Palic, First Secretary of the Czechoslovakian Embassy, a single specific design involving four bars was determined to be the appropriate candidate to put forth.

It gradually flew at more and more government offices and was distributed to various of the United Nations, and it was officially adopted in several countries starting with New Zealand.

By a motion in the United States Senate, the flag was flown in thousands of towns to celebrate V-E Day.