Declassified: Chairman Mao

This biographical documentary from cable's History Channel profiles Communist party leader Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976). One of the most formidable leaders that the world has ever seen, Mao was undeniably a brilliant political and economic mind, despite his role as a progenitor of 20th Century Communism and a homicidal despot. This program tells Mao's unusual story - how he decided, early on, that he must "destroy" his country in order to liberate it through reconstruction. In the process, he harnessed the Chinese extremist youth movement and single-handedly brought about the notorious Cultural Revolution, while murdering millions. The film draws on a wealth of archival material to tell this strange, disturbing story, and also interpolates interviews with several individuals who lived through Mao's terrors.