ABSTRACT
Hu Yaobang was said to have died of a heart attack after a heated argument with conservative veterans during a Politburo conference. Between Hu’s death on April 15 and his funeral on April 22, 1989, a sizable student movement came into being in Beijing. The students went to Tiananmen Square to demand that Hu’s reputation be fully rehabilitated. For better or for worse, foreign interests and influences, or what Deng later called the “general international climate,” had indeed been acting upon this student movement. The army entered Beijing on the night of June 3. The soldiers approached from several directions, mainly from the western suburbs, to meet in Tiananmen Square. In front of the Gate of Heavenly Peace is Eternal Peace Boulevard, Beijing’s main artery, running from east to west through the capital city. The half-mile section of the boulevard from Muxidi to Xidan, a couple of miles west of Tiananmen Square, was turned into a bloody stream.
