Tiananmen Square Document 13: Secretary of State's Morning Summary for June 4, 1989, China: Troops Open Fire, 1989

The violence that occurred on the night of June 3-4 is summarized in this State Department morning intelligence summary for June 4. "Two weeks after martial law was declared," the report observes, "the government again controls the symbolic center of the country." The document describes how civilians turned out in massive numbers and fought for seven hours to prevent the troops from advancing on the square. In the face of overwhelming numbers of heavily armed troops, the summary notes, "thousands of civilians stood their ground or swarmed around military vehicles. APCs were set on fire, and demonstrators besieged troops with rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails."

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Original source: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html#d13