Pol Pot: Secret Killer

• Documentary

Episode overview

He was a privileged youth who was drawn to Communism in France during the '50s. When he returned to his own country he led a violent brutal regime that saw more than a quarter of the population die. Along with Idi Amin, Pol Pot is one of the most brutal and hated leaders of modern history. His Khmer Rouge party was responsible for the death of between 1 and 4 million people through disease, starvation and execution. Biography traces his life and rule through interviews with those who knew him including former Khmer associates and friends from his radical days in Paris along with extensive footage from inside Cambodia and commentary from scholars, historians and biographers. Learn of his comfortable childhood and hear how the future murderer was known as a charming caring and intelligent young man. Explore the reasons for his transformation into a leader whose thirst for blood and vengeance still scars his country almost two decades after he was overthrown.

60 minutes