Feb 1997A fascinating review of American involvement in Liberia's history and the destruction of this once promising nation. America created Liberia last century as somewhere for former slaves to go back to. They modelled their lives and palatial homes on the American plantation owners who once enslaved them. Few could have foreseen the anarchy to follow. Today on the streets of the capital Monrovia, youths casually commit murder and display the remains of their victims. Chilling footage and interviews (including the son of President William Tolbert - executed by firing squad in 1980) document the rise and fall of successive cruel and cannibalistic dictatorships propped up by America. A former US Ambassador justifies his support for President Samuel Doe, despite his brutal rise to power. But why did they not consider rescuing Doe from capture by Prince Johnson and his troops? We see Johnson's controversial and famous telephone call to the American Embassy using a coded call sign and relaying Doe's capture. A guerrilla fighter on the scene says Johnson told the US Ambassador "mission accomplished".

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