Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders

Reviewed by Michael Peck
The Military Book Review

It's easy for military historians to focus on the fighting, yet ignore what the combatants were fighting for. As Gerhard Weinberg perceptively demonstrates, the decisions of leaders in the Second World War were guided by their visions of not only remaking the world, but remaking their own societies as well.

Weinberg, one of the foremost World War II historians, and author of the monumental A World at Arms, has penned an interesting, readable look at the aspirations of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Chiang Kai-shek, Stalin, Churchill, de Gaulle and Roosevelt.

Some of the information will be familiar to the World War II buff, such as Hitler's desire to colonize Eastern Europe (after exterminating or expelling the local population), and Mussolini's grandiose dream of a Mediterranean empire. Tojo envisioned a Japanese imperium that included Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest!

Yet, while the Euro-Axis dictators intended to remake their societies in the image of Fascist Man, the domestic institutions of a victorious Japan would most likely have remained unchanged. Similarly, Churchill focused on preserving the British Empire rather than changing the world.

Weinberg considers Roosevelt to be the most successful of the eight leaders in realizing his visions. In particular, FDR succeeded in forming the United Nations and other international organizations that he hoped would prevent a third world war.

Perhaps the most poignant of Weinberg's brief portraits is Chiang Kai-shek, who tried to stave off Japanese invasion and communist rebellion while trying to modernize his nation and end the humiliating treaties that gave his allies extraterritorial rights in China. Japan could not force Chiang to submit, but the losses it inflicted on the Nationalist forces were enough to enable Mao to take over China.

It's these unintended consequences that are perhaps the most interesting facets of Visions of Victory. There is irony in comparing Hitler's hopes with the outcomes of his actions. He wanted all Germans to be united in a single nation — he got his wish after the victorious Allies deported the ethnic Germans of Eastern Europe to Germany. Japan tried to conquer China, but instead paved the way for a communist regime that threatened to dominate its neighbors.

In the end, it's the human changes that would have enraged the dictators. "In a prisoner of war camp after the war," writes Weinberg, "Field Marshal Ritter Von Leeb noted in his diary the things Germany would have to do somewhat differently in order to win the third world war against the same enemies, a contingency he evidently took for granted. It would be very difficult to find substantial numbers of Germans now who would find that prospect desirable or even conceivable."