Abstract:

"This program examines what we know about Mao Tse-tung today, twenty years after his death, his reputation tarnished by new evidence about the darker side of both his private life and his public policy. He modernized feudal China yet set it back a decade through the Cultural Revolution. He restored China's imperial pride as a great power, then allowed millions of its people to starve. He preached a simple lifestyle, yet privately, he lived like an emperor. The program looks back at Mao's life through a combination of archival footage and interviews with experts who witnessed his rule firsthand. "