The Khmer Rouge & Pol Pot's Reign of Terror

Dan Snow talks with historian Ben Kiernan about the Khmer Rouge's seizure of Phnom Penh in April 1975 and the declaration of 'Year Zero', an ideological campaign to erase Cambodia's past and build Pol Pot's vision of a communist utopia. The conversation traces the movement's rise out of the turmoil of the Vietnam War, the nearly two million deaths the regime caused in four years — almost a quarter of Cambodia's population — and the regime's fall in 1979. Kiernan draws on his books 'How Pol Pot Came to Power' and 'The Pol Pot Regime' to provide the historical context.