00:00Liberia, 1980.
00:02Sergeant Samuel Doe and 17 soldiers storm the presidential palace.
00:08Drag President William Tolbert out of bed.
00:10Shoot him.
00:11Ten days later, Doe marches 13 government ministers onto a beach.
00:16Ties them to wooden poles.
00:18The firing squad waits.
00:20Crowds gather to watch.
00:21The executions are televised.
00:24Doe is 28 years old.
00:26Now he's president.
00:27Ronald Reagan watches from Washington.
00:29He has a choice.
00:30Condemn a military coup or back a dictator willing to fight communism.
00:35He picks Doe.
00:36Liberia sits surrounded by Soviet-backed nations.
00:40Doe promises he's anti-communist.
00:42That's all Reagan needs to hear.
00:44Within a year, America floods Doe with $500 million in military aid.
00:50More than any other country in Africa.
00:52They train his army.
00:54Sell him weapons.
00:55Look the other way when he starts killing.
00:57Doe tortures political opponents.
00:59Rigs elections.
01:01Exiting entire ethnic groups who oppose him.
01:04America keeps sending money.
01:05By 1989, one of Doe's former soldiers, Charles Taylor, crosses the border from Ivory Coast with an army of child
01:13fighters.
01:14Some as young as nine.
01:16Cocaine.
01:17AK-47s.
01:18No rules.
01:19Doe's forces respond by massacring civilians.
01:23The country burns.
01:24September 9th, 1990.
01:26Taylor's rebels capture Doe.
01:29They film everything.
01:30Cut off his ears while he's still alive.
01:33Torture him for hours.
01:34Then execute him.
01:35But the war doesn't stop.
01:37It splinters into chaos.
01:39Warlords fight over scraps of territory.
01:42By 1996, over 200,000 Liberians are dead.
01:47A million more displaced.
01:49Charles Taylor eventually becomes president in 1997.
01:53Spreads the war to Sierra Leone.
01:55Gets arrested in 2006.
01:57Convicted of crimes against humanity.
02:00Sentenced to 50 years in prison.
02:02He's still alive in a British cell.
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