In the tense early-morning hours of June 4, hope died and fear was born. Thousands of combat troops stormed Tiananmen Square, transforming the Woodstock-like encampment of young students calling for democracy into the bloodiest killing ground in Communist China's history. The images of defiance and devastation, the voices of determination and despair, shook the world. Here, protesters attacked troops with poles and rocks. There, a student lurched, his dazed face soaked with blood. Everywhere, the bodies fell, how many is still not known, while fires blazed, signaling the dawn of China's uncertain new world.
"Our call for democracy has reached the...