Tank Man- Jeff Widener, 1989. Famous Tianamen Square protests, Beijing, China

Image from preview.redd.it and submitted by Traditional-Music363
image showing Tank Man- Jeff Widener, 1989. Famous Tianamen Square protests, Beijing, China

Adangst on January 7th, 2025 at 21:15 UTC »

“Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

not__a_username on January 7th, 2025 at 21:47 UTC »

Is the man holding a bag of groceries?

Adonisus on January 7th, 2025 at 23:22 UTC »

Some interesting facts.

-The tanks you see here were in fact exiting the square rather than entering it.

-The individual in the photo has never been found. In the footage of the incident it's seen that he climbs onto the tank (possibly talking with the pilot), then climbs off before someone pulls him off of the street. Their reasons for their actions remain a mystery.

-There's two other photos that were discovered years later where 'tank man' was shown to have been standing in the street for some time before the tanks got to him.

-Although it's called the Tienanmen Square massacre, most of the violence occurred in the immediate area around the square rather than in the square proper.

-Yes, those tanks were absolutely used to squash people. The photographic evidence can be found easily online with a little work.

-Your average Chinese person absolutely knows about the Tienanmen incident; far too many people took part for it to remain a secret.