Twilight 2000: Countdown to Armageddon
by Richard A. Spake ©
1989: The Year in Review
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January 1989
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February 1989
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March 1989
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April 1989
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15 April - 4 June 1989 (Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989). The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, referred to in much of the world as the Tiananmen Square massacre and in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (to avoid confusion with two prior Tiananmen Square protests), were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) beginning on 14 April 1989. Unfortunately, the media coverage of the Black Winter will cause the Tiananmen Square Massacre to become a footnote in history. The protests were sparked by the death of Hu Yaobang, a Party official known for tolerating dissent, and whom protesters had wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 100,000 people had gathered at Tiananmen Square. The protests lacked a unified cause or leadership; participants included Communist Party of China members and Trotskyists as well as liberal reformers, who were generally against the government's authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic change and democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered in Tiananmen Square to begin with but then later in the streets around the square, in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which remained peaceful throughout the protests. The movement lasted seven weeks after Hu's death on 15 April. In early June, the People's Liberation Army moved into the streets of Beijing with troops and tanks and cleared the square with live fire. The exact number of deaths is not known. According to an analysis by Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times, "The true number of deaths will probably never be known, and it is possible that thousands of people were killed without leaving evidence behind. But based on the evidence that is now available, it seems plausible that about fifty soldiers and policemen were killed, along with 400 to 800 civilians." Globe and Mail correspondent Jan Wong placed the death toll at approximately 3,000, based on initial reports by the Red Cross and analysis on the crowd size, density, and the volume of firing. Following the conflict, the government conducted widespread arrests of protesters and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. There was widespread international condemnation of the PRC government's use of force against the protesters.
May 1989
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June 1989
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July 1989
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August 1989
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September 1989
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October 1989
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7 October 1989. Gorbachev is assassinated when the aircraft carrying him back to Moscow blows up on the return flight from the 40t Anniversary of the Founding of the German Democratic Republic, the Hardline conspirators are able to convince the world that it was a terrorist act carried out by Islamic Extremists associated with Osama bin Laden… the one of the prominent leaders of the resistance to Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan.
9 October 1989. A popular uprising in the East German city of Leipzig occurs, with protestors demanding the legalization of opposition groups and democratic reforms.
9 October 1989 - 10 January 1990 ("The Black Winter"). On the morning of 9 October 1989, the Cabal of Hardliners back in Moscow issues the order that launches a coordinated military operation by the Group Soviet Forces in Germany, the Northern Group of Forces, the Central Group Forces and the Southern Group of Forces that springs into action with a horrifying brutality and swiftness not seen in decades. The Cabal of Hardliners had spent almost six months getting key personnel into position to support what could have originally been a coup d'état that would have unseated Gorbachev if their plan to make the assassination to look like a terrorist attack failed. Operation Red Phoenix occurred so quickly that the Western Powers could only watch on in horror to what will become remembered as "The Black Winter" by those on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
November 1989
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December 1989
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20 December 1989 - 12 January 1990. The United States Invasion of Panama (codenamed Operation Just Cause) was the invasion of Panama by the United States in December 1989. It occurred during the administration of U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and ten years after the Torrijos–Carter Treaties were ratified to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama by the year 2000. During the invasion, de facto Panamanian leader, general, and dictator Manuel Noriega was deposed, president-elect Guillermo Endara sworn into office and the Panamanian Defense Force dissolved.
24 December 1989.
25 December 1989.