Jeff Widener was an Associated Press photo editor based in Bangkok when he was called in to help cover a growing student-led pro-democracy movement centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. The photo of “tank man” became one of the most famous images of defiance of the 20th century. “The United States and European countries have made mistakes throughout history and they’ve reconciled those problems,” Widener told AP. With the protests in full swing, he developed a daily routine of riding a bicycle early in the morning to Tiananmen Square, where thousands of students were camped out. There, he met an American college exchange student, Kirk Martsen, who would play a key role in the tank man tale.

Source: National Post June 01, 2019 01:30 UTC