Pol Pot: Coming Soon on Real Dictators…

Speaker 1 In the next episode of Real Dictators, we're in Southeast Asia, in Cambodia in the 1970s.

Speaker 1 South of the capital, Phnom Penh, lies the jungle.

Speaker 1 Through the trees, a handful of huts come into view: bamboo constructions with thatches of palm leaves. It's a rebel camp.

Speaker 1 Inside one of the huts, two men sit at a table, eating a frugal lunch. Then the news crackles through on an old radio.
The capital has been seized by renegade troops, dressed all in black.

Speaker 1 This is what these men have been working towards for years.

Speaker 1 One of them speaks. It is a great victory, he says.
but one achieved by the Cambodian people alone.

Speaker 1 He may seem reluctant to take any credit, but Pol Pot knows that the takeover of Phnom Penh will see him installed as Cambodia's leader.

Speaker 1 This date will be recorded by his followers as the first day of year zero, Cambodia's supposed new beginning.

Speaker 1 He claims that he will build a paradise.

Speaker 1 Instead, he will take his country on a descent into hell.

Speaker 1 The Pol Pot story.

Speaker 1 That's next time on Real Dictators.