New story emerges of an infamous massacre

What happened instead, according to Munro's account, was a kind of surreal debate at a moment of decision. The head of the Peking students autonomous federation urged all students to stay and face the guns. "We will now pay the highest price possible, for the sake of securing democracy for China. Our blood will be the consecration," are his words in Munro's notes. Yet immediately leader Hou Dejian disagreed, saying on the loudspeaker: "We have already won a great victory. But now we have to go."

The minutes ticked by and no actions were taken. Munro says, "My gut feeling was that everyone present knew perfectly well why they where there; it was a private conviction but one that all shared."

It appeared that they might stay. But in what seemed an afterthought, someone, it is not clear who, came on the speaker to suggest taking a vote. "It was ... at the time a stroke of genius" that may have saved thousands of lives, Munro recalled.

Between 5 and 6 a.m. the students left the memorial and filed out to the southwest part of the square, walking behind the banners that marked which college they were from.

"There was absolutely no one killed at the Monument [of the People's Heroes]," said Spanish cameraman Rodriques, who was filming the entire evening, and whose testimony contrasts with 15 years of unattributed rumor. "Everyone left and no one was killed."

"Student leaders had pulled off the most difficult maneuver ... an orderly retreat," Richard Nations said in testimony given weeks later. "The real violence still lay ahead but at that moment the 1989 democratic movement was over, and the next phase began as the column walked off the theater of national politics at Tiananmen."

Mr. Restrepro was on hand as the students departed past a Kentucky Fried Chicken shop: At daybreak "It was one of those extraordinary moments.... The students were carrying their banners.... Some had no shoes. I shall remember this for the rest of my life, the faces of those boys and girls.... At 5 a.m. the first flags coming out... and it took one hour... and as they [left] the people began insulting the soldiers and cheering ... the students. Then some began to throw stones... and it was dangerous."

One dynamic that eyewitnesses say played a central role was the relationship between students and ordinary Beijing people. By late May the common people were very impressed, if not a bit smitten with what they called "our" students. By the end of May, as the students tested their resolve through hunger strikes, workers and citizens were sending them water, offering help with sanitation, and medical supplies, and giving general tender loving care.

"The people loved the students because they could see the students loved China," one school teacher who lived near the square remembers now. "That was the thing. We didn't think of them as anticommunist. We could see they were patriots who were for democracy. But after June 4, we could no longer say this."

On June 3 as the Army began approaching the square about midnight - calls went out all over Beijing. Sympathetic crowds numbering in the tens of thousands felt the Army was coming to shoot the students. There are hundreds of accounts of citizens, mothers and sons alike, chasing tanks in bicycles, setting fire to trucks, putting up road blocks. At the Jianguomenwai overpass a set of locals talked an entire truck-full of soldiers into climbing down. But the price paid by the citizens was high, as the troops - many of whom were brought into Beijing from all over China - began to retaliate.

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4