• pooh [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    I think I might have an old post somewhere with more info, but I remember the highlights on the protests being:

    • Multiple credible witnesses saw no massacre within the square
    • There are wikileaks cables that contradict what the US later claimed happened
    • There was violence happening elsewhere, but at least some of that violence was confirmed to have been done by rioters (not peaceful protestors) and casualty numbers are nowhere near what was later claimed
    • It was documented that the CIA was assisting the protestors. I believe I first saw this on the Qiao Collective page, then found the actual clipping from a newspaper archive website:

    Show

    • CIA also assisted in helping the protest leaders later flee China
    • This Qiao Collective page is by far the best single source I found on information related to the protests: https://www.qiaocollective.com/education/tiananmenreadinglist
    • US Army Psyops actually put out a recruitment video bragging about manipulating media coverage of the event: https://youtu.be/VA4e0NqyYMw Not sure if that particular group would have been involved back then but it is still interesting they chose to include that.