Pol Pot: Coming Soon on Real Dictators…
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Transcript
In the next episode of Real Dictators, we're in Southeast Asia, in Cambodia in the 1970s.
South of the capital, Phnom Penh, lies the jungle.
Through the trees, a handful of huts come into view: bamboo constructions with thatches of palm leaves.
It's a rebel camp.
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.
This is what these men have been working towards for years.
One of them speaks.
It is a great victory, he says.
but one achieved by the Cambodian people alone.
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.
This date will be recorded by his followers as the first day of year zero, Cambodia's supposed new beginning.
He claims that he will build a paradise.
Instead, he will take his country on a descent into hell.
The Pol Pot story.
That's next time on Real Dictators.
