"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.