Episode Details

Sukarno unified over three hundred ethnic groups, seven hundred languages, and seventeen thousand islands into a single nation — the fourth most populous country on earth. He declared Indonesian independence, fought the Dutch to keep it, and governed through a philosophy called "Guided Democracy" that was neither guided nor democratic. He was eventually overthrown by the military he had tried to balance against the communists, and the anti-communist purge that followed killed between 500,000 and a million people.

This episode traces Sukarno from his Javanese childhood through the independence declaration, the nation-building project, the Guided Democracy era, and the 1965 crisis that ended his rule and triggered one of the twentieth century's worst mass killings.

• Sukarno's education and the nationalist philosophy — Pancasila — that he designed to hold a fractured nation together
• The independence declaration, the Dutch war, and the diplomatic victory at the Hague
• Guided Democracy, the Cold War balancing act, and the increasing authoritarianism
• The 1965 crisis, the military takeover, and the anti-communist massacre that killed up to a million people