TY - BOOK AU - Weinberg,Gerhard L. TI - Visions of victory: the hopes of eight World War II leaders SN - 9780521708753 U1 - 940.530922 WEI 22 PY - 2005/// CY - Cambridge, New York PB - Cambridge University Press KW - World War, 1939-1945 KW - Biography KW - Heads of state N1 - Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-284) and index; Adolf Hitler -- Benito Mussolini -- Tojo Hideki -- Chiang Kai-shek -- Josef Stalin -- Winston Churchill -- Charles de Gaulle -- Franklin D. Roosevelt -- The real postwar world N2 - "Visions of Victory explores the views of eight leaders of the major belligerents in World War II - Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Chiang Kai-shek, Stalin, Churchill, de Gaulle, and Roosevelt - and compares their visions of the future assuming their side emerged victorious. While the leaders primarily focused their attention on strategies for fighting and wining the war, these strategies were often shaped by their aspirations and hopes for the future. Weinberg assesses how subsequent events were impacted by their decisions and examines how their visions for the future changed and evolved throughout the war. What emerges is a startling picture of postwar worlds: Besides the extermination of the Jews, Hitler intended for all the Slavs to die off and for the Germans to inhabit all of eastern Europe. Both Mussolini and Hitler intended to have extensive colonies in Africa. Churchill hoped to see the reemergence of the British and French Empires; De Gaulle wanted to annex the northwest corner of Italy (but Truman forced him to back down). Stalin wanted control of eastern Europe, and he got it. Roosevelt's vision of the future was the closest to being fulfilled, including, importantly, the establishment of the United Nations. Weinberg's comparison of the individual portraits of the war-time leaders is a highly original and compelling study of history that might have been."--BOOK JACKET ER -