From Publishers Weekly
At least six weeks before the June 1989 massacre of pro-democracy students and workers in Tiananmen Square, President George Bush knew that China's rulers were leaning toward the use of military force to crush the protest, charges the author. In the most complete book on the Tiananmen Square tragedy to date, a dramatic chronicle packed with revelations, Thomas ( Journey into Madness ) shows how the CIA bugged the Chinese ruling elite's compound as far back as the mid-1970s. He charges that Bush, relenting to pressure from the CIA and American businesses that had invested billions in China, did nothing to avert the impending crackdown. Soon after the massacre, Thomas asserts, the White House ended the trade restrictions it had imposed on China and, in exchange, China's leaders provided Pentagon planners with the exact locations of Chinese missiles and details of other weapons Beijing had sold to Saddam Hussein. Based on interviews with Chinese diplomats, eyewitnesses and U.S. intelligence officers who insisted on anonymity, Thomas's coherent narrative jump-cuts from White House meetings to the daily lives of China's student activists who, it appears, were pawns. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
What happened at Tiananmen Square over two years ago is still an important topic for discussion. Through interviews with the U.S. intelligence community as well as some of the key figures in the protest, Thomas takes his readers behind the scenes for a first-hand account of the events that led up to the massacre of students and civilians protesting for democracy. He attempts to demonstrate how the Bush administration knew the massacre was about to take place but did nothing to stop it because economic ties and trade links with China, many years in the making, were too precious to risk losing. Thomas's narrative is at times fast-paced, but when he gets too bogged down in detail, it makes for dull reading and seems to border on sensationalism. Still, the topic is worthwhile and deserves the kind of careful scrutiny that Thomas has set out to do here. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.
- Patricia Sarles, Mt. Sinai Medical Ctr., New YorkCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
