China's Tank Man and the collapse of Communism..

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1989! Tiananmen Square, China. Did we remember?.

December 31, 1988, at 11:59.57, in Times Square. A crowd is gathered, and people are screaming and yelling. Then, the count down 3,2,1… midnight! Happy New Year! Everyone jubilates, embraces, chants, and dances in the street and all over New York… it is 1989, a brand new year.

What can Americans wish for? Prosper in their enterprise, success, riches? What can we ask for? Liberty? Justice? Freedom? Written in the constitution, all these essentials to human life were given to us as birthright. The last pillar of injustice was removed during the civil rights movement when thousands gathered in the name of justice to demonstrate the end of segregation in the South.

We are the good people, the heroes of WWII; then, in our wake, there are the other countries ruled by tyrants, where individuality is suppressed for the benefit of collectivity. The survival of the community passes before the individual "Communism. " After WWII, the Super Powers— the Soviet Union and the United States— engaged in a new war; "The Cold War." The war was no longer in the open, but now each side supported opposite factions to promote their opposing interests. Everything was a covert operation, or in other words, espionage.

On television, the news was about George H. W, Bush 41^st president of the United States, Soviet troops leaving Afghanistan after nine years of fighting the world called their Vietnam, Mikhail Gorbachev, Leader of the Soviet Union, slowly opening the doors of his country to International dialogue and to reforms.

Was it the end of China's old regime?

It was then that China's leaders realized the gravity of the situation. Their orders were that Tiananmen Square had to be cleared by dawn. Marshal Law was immediately ordered in Beijing, and massive forces were sent to restore order. The army and the convoys were met by blockades. After 4 days of standoff, the army had to retreat. Before such humiliation, the government retaliated by mobilizing three hundred thousand soldiers from military districts all over China.

This time tanks ran over the barricades; the soldiers fired at the unarmed crowd. The confrontation lasted all through the night; thousands were killed, thousands were wounded, and thousands held a last stand on the steps of the People's Heroes Monument; rivers of soldiers deployed to the Square; the civilians expected to be killed, but the officers gave them amnesty if they did leave peacefully. By dawn, the army had cleared the Square. They left...

On June 5^, the army had complete control of the city. The people's voices had been silenced. Then the unexpected happened; early that morning, people resumed their lives, and sidewalks were bustling with pedestrians going to work. On the main avenue, a column of 20 tanks paraded, zigzagging, letting the population know they had lost. Then the unexpected happened; out of nowhere, one man stood in the middle of the avenue

with a white shirt, dark pants, and bags in his hands. A gun was fired from the convoy, and onlookers hid and ran away. This young man stopped the convoy; no one knew who he was; a student? A parent? For several minutes, we saw him gesticulate; what was he saying? … The night before, thousands were demonstrating for reform; today, despite the massacre, one man alone faced a column of tanks. That man became a symbol of hope for all those who had been silenced. That image became the icon of freedom and hope in the international arena.

Slowly, we saw more common individuals rise with newfound strength to protest for recent reforms worldwide. Before the end of the year, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, still occupied by the Soviet Union, joined hands, forming an uninterrupted 600-kilometer human chain to demand freedom and independence. In November, the government of East Germany resigned, and the Berlin wall was brought down. Czechoslovakia's students demonstrated revolution and the overthrow of the communist government. Then the Romanian Revolution ends its communist dictatorship. And on December 3, off the coast of Malta, G.H.W. Bush and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev released statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may end. By the end of the year, the Iron curtain was lifting, and the Cold War began to disappear.

Liberty, Justice, and Freedom are written into our constitution and bestowed unto us today by those who gave their lives. What would we fight for? What right would you die for? One man stood in the front of a whole convoy of tanks, ready to give his life. To die rather than live under oppression, corruption, and injustice, He was the voice of all the people who die, that they did not die in vain.

Today, the world has new foes. Today, 20 years later, the communist Soviet Union doesn't excite, Russia has lifted the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall was torn to pieces, and China is still a communist country but has joined 21st-century global economies. The Cold War is not a looming threat but a textbook chapter for students.

World Peace is just a dream. But as long as there is Tank Man, democracy and freedom will be won one country at a time.