CBS5.com's foreign correspondent, Frank Viviano, has
a poignant and important essay at his World View column that is a look back on the tragedy of Tiananmen Square 20 years ago:
I interviewed many of the student leaders – the fiery Chai Ling, the
sarcastic Wu'er Kaixi, the low-key but intense Wang Dan – and it was
also impossible to imagine them accepting a compromise.
Yet as late as mid-May, it had been equally impossible to imagine the
tanks rolling in, crushing or blasting away nearly everything and
everyone in their path. "The people's army will never use its guns
against the people," a senior official in Shanghai had insisted just
weeks before the assault.
That faith was destroyed on June 4, and its loss, perhaps as much as
the killing itself, explained the weeping crowds I encountered in the
weeks that followed.
Read this sobering essay in full, then leave your comments on the piece below.
