Churchill's Triumph - A novel of betrayal

I liked this book. The history buff that i am, this book covers the happenings in the 6 days at the famed Yalta Conference. It is nice to see leaders as human beings with their failings. It is quite sad to see (as i long suspected) them making decisions that change the course of history, with partisan and private ambitions and nothing remotely exalted or a sense of responsibility towards people who are to be influenced by these decisions.

Deals struck at that point for whatever reasons have changed the course of history so much. Poland remained under the communist fist till as much as the early 90s. Generations of people have been born, lived & died under regimes created through such decisions. (Well, there is also the question, is it that bad living in a communist regime as made out by the western media. Life goes on there as well. Iraq seemed stable under saddam, Yugoslavia under Tito and so on and so forth. All hell broke loose when the regimes collapsed). The sense of Freedom is so much an illusion.

Roosevelt's agenda was the United Nations with the sole ambition of leaving a footprint in history. (Reminded me of Jinnah. A Britisher in many ways who was instrumental in the creation of Pakistan - an islamic nation, a religion he did not even practise and a nation he did not live long to see on its foot). Stalin's ambition was conquest and he was naked in his ambitions with all others eager to appease. It gives credence to the idea that rules are for the common mass. It doesn't apply to the powerful. Churcill's agenda is something i would not comment on considering that it is a book rather in praise of him. It is made to seem that all decisions were made in an effort to stop the spread of the "Red" influence with a plan to willify Stalin and with an exalted aim of creating ideals that generations would follow. Well, it seems rather far fetched if that was indeed his plan or agenda.

It also reminds me that all of us face decisions and dilemma in all walks of our life where we are forced to follow illusory creations. I remember facing humiliations to be in front of a line to get into a crowded bus to head home in the territory created by the bus driver & conductor. Illusions and rules that all follow to go ahead in life. Weird. I guess end of day, man sets limitations on himself. Freedom is just a term that a man can define for himself.