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Tiananmen Square Document 12: Cable, SITREP 1, 1989
This document, the first in this series of SITREPs, updates U.S. embassy and consular personnel around the world on the first violent clashes with demonstrators. (June 3, 1989)
June 3, 1989
By the evening of June 3 the crackdown had begun in Beijing, and the State Department created a special task force in Washington, designated by the heading "TFCH01," to coordinate information on the situation in China. This document, the first in this series of SITREPs, updates U.S. embassy and consular personnel around the world on the first violent clashes with demonstrators as PLA troops "using automatic weapons advanced in tanks, APC’s [Armored Personnel Carriers], and trucks from several directions toward the city center." Casualties, according to the estimates of U.S. Embassy personnel, appear high. The cable also notes that Under Secretary of State Robert Kimmitt had called on PRC Ambassador Han Xu to express "deep regret at the use of force."
To access the document, please click here.
Original source: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html#d12
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