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It was the scoop of the century.

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WikiLeaks lifts the curtain on the secret communications between Washington

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and the diplomats that we have stationed all over the globe.

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I'm not aware of any release of information in human history comparable to the amount that was released via WikiLeaks.

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These were cables that show the super power's secret thought.

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It was hard for me to look Secretary Clinton in the eye when she was like, "How did this happen?"

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A quarter of a million US diplomatic messages apparently stolen by one of their own soldiers;

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turned into a global sensation by a whistle-blowing website and it's controversial founder, Julian Assange.

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I like crushing bastards.

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I think every diplomat around the world would have one overwriting thought, "Thank God! It wasn't me," and "Thank God! It's not us."

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In the first in-depth television analysis of the secret cables,

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we lift the lid on how the world's greatest super power does business and how it gets what it wants.

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We reveal a super power on a mission to change the world.

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But a super power that sometimes fails to live up to its own ideals.

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It's a complete outrage --

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Diplomats stepping in to attempt to obstruct the course of the criminal investigation.

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Over a year has passed since the leaking of the cables.

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[Protests]

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Now we assess what the impact of the leak has been in the US and beyond.

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And we ask, can American Diplomacy ever be the same again?

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They don't trust you anymore.

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Many of them don't, and it will take a long time, I think, to recover that trust.

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[WIKILEAKS: The Secret Life of A Superpower]

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It's late November 2010.

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Two journalists arrive at the US State Department in Washington DC --

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The enormous ministry that controls America's relationship with the rest of the world.

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They're not here for a friendly chat.

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They're about to blow the lid on America's diplomatic secrets.

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They were maybe a dozen senior officials and, behind them,

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you know, at least a dozen more minions taking notes on laptops and so on.

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They represented not just the State Department

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but all of the intelligence agencies and the defense department.

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They did not look happy.

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The US State Department was facing a crisis unlike any other.

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A quarter of a million internal messages or cables between Washington and US embassies all over the world

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had found their way into the hands of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks

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and, from there, to five major newspapers.

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Their message at the opening of the meeting, in uncertain terms, was "You've been given stolen material -- classified material.

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There would be grave consequences if you publish any of it."

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At that meeting, one of the people leading the state department's response to the crisis was P.J. Crowley.

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These stories resulted from a crime.

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For us, this was still classified material.

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It was our responsibility to, you know, continue to protect them.

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The State Department was right to be worried.

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The cables reveal what American diplomats say when they think the world will never know --

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Who they trust and who they mock,

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what they want and how they get it.

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"Some inside the US government dismiss [Berlusconi] as feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader."

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"Merkel is risk averse and rarely creative."

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"Gaddafi relies heavily on his long-time Ukranian nurse, who has been described as a 'voluptuous blonde."

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Detailed records from thousands of secret meetings and conversations involving US diplomats

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were about to become a media sensation.

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"Bank of England Governor Mervyn King expressed great concern about Conservative leaders' lack of experience."

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"It was related that King Abdullah remains a heavy smoker, regularly receives hormone injections, and 'uses Viagra excessively."

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Here were records of American diplomats' secret plans and strategies, their uncertainties and fears.

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"We should aim at influencing the narrow group of individuals that surround him."