Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement

The Tiananmen square tragedy can be analyzed, according to Brook, as the result of a single order from the CCP for the PLA to attack civilians. The PLA members and leaders could individually question the order, but once it was given, the order commanded the PLA as a unit to uphold its mandate to protect the CCP from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Therefore, the soldiers, given only deadly weapons with which to protect the party, necessarily did so with deadly force. Unlike other analyses of tragedies that have been produced recently, such as Iris Chang's 'Rape of Nanking' with all its errors, this is an actual work of history that traces the order to attack back to its origin, and therefore answers the painful question of how the party claiming to be the dictatorship of the proletariat could through its military might against its own people. Avoiding sensationalism, Brook analyzes what happened and why without overstepping the bounds of reasonable conjecture. Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone interested in understanding the tragedy of May Fifth.