A lone, unknown man, referred to by many simply as “Tank Man” stands in front of a column of Army tanks in Beijing the day after the Chinese government’s violent crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square.
The identity of the man and what became of him are still a mystery to this day.
June 5, 1989 - 24 years ago today
"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!" --Mario Savio - Sproul Hall Sit-In Address
Posted by gerardvanderleun at June 5, 2013 6:56 PM
Fox should show this clip every fucking day until we reach down and find our balls. Jesus H. Christ!
Posted by: Ray Van Dune at June 5, 2013 7:23 PMWhat's in the bags he's carrying? My guess is its his balls...Big ones they are!
Posted by: rockman at June 6, 2013 11:55 AMA [native S. Koerean] co-worker told us at the time that the tank commander was "Demoted!" for not running over the guy.
Tough situation: I think he would have been demoted no matter what he did.
Posted by: Smokey at June 6, 2013 12:14 PMI cut that picture out of a newspaper way back when and have kept it in my wallet ever since. I've often wondered what happened to him, but haven't really wanted to know the answer in the event he came to a brutal end during the crack down. Peace be with you wherever you are!!
Posted by: Kerry at June 6, 2013 6:40 PMI remember that like it was yesterday.
Posted by: pdwalker at June 7, 2013 10:26 AMI remember it, too. It was very inspiring. For a moment it looked like the Cold War was going to end in a new era of freedom and democracy. One dictatorship after another fell ... and here it had spread to China.
And then the Chinese slaughtered their own demonstrators by the thousands, in full view of the world, and said, "What are you gonna do about it."
And the world said nothing. First Bush I, then Clinton, and then we forgot about it and traded with them like it never happened.
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