I love thoughts like this. To play devil’s advocate, how might it have impacted Cold War events down the road?
There’s a great book called “When the World Seemed New,” by Jeffrey Engel about the monumental world events which during George H.W. Bush’s presidency.
Tiananmen Square took place ~5 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. One of the points made in the book (and other Cold War-related texts I have read, though pointedly in this one) suggested the events in China really gave the (East) Germans and Soviets pause on how to handle a rising protest movement. It’s still regarded as a bit of a miracle the Leipzig church demonstrations and the Wall falling occurred without bloodshed.
Would a peaceful resolution in China have changed the ultimate course of the Cold War? I don’t necessarily think so; Iron Curtain nations were already fraying. But it would have been very, very interesting if two major communist countries, nuclear powers fell in quick order in terms of economies and alliances.
There’s a great book called “When the World Seemed New,” by Jeffrey Engel about the monumental world events which during George H.W. Bush’s presidency.
Tiananmen Square took place ~5 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. One of the points made in the book (and other Cold War-related texts I have read, though pointedly in this one) suggested the events in China really gave the (East) Germans and Soviets pause on how to handle a rising protest movement. It’s still regarded as a bit of a miracle the Leipzig church demonstrations and the Wall falling occurred without bloodshed.
Would a peaceful resolution in China have changed the ultimate course of the Cold War? I don’t necessarily think so; Iron Curtain nations were already fraying. But it would have been very, very interesting if two major communist countries, nuclear powers fell in quick order in terms of economies and alliances.