The students were lacking of tangible objectives. From my perspective, they are overdone and doom to fail. 鄧小平can see far, far ahead than everyone else. He wants to send out a very clear message to people. China most needed is to move out of poverty instead of others. The army fire squads were just delivering his unyielding message to people – stability or status quo. Had he didn't do so; China could not have 20 years post 6/4 peace and stellar development.
You can think of a nation as an individual. From time to time, there is priority in live where we have various agendas to achieve; and we have to or better to handle one thing at a time. 鄧 understood if China would detour from pacing toward economic development, the consequence can be enormously devastating.
Due to the nation had quickly cool down and China had regained its’own stability and footing in economic development. Today, we all benefit directly or indirectly from a stronger and stable China. And time has proved 鄧 is right and his hand pick leaders are also very remarkable.
I'm sorrow to the death. They were the victim of being na239;ve and vanished young. It's a norm every individual or a country makes mistakes - some harmless, some fatal. I would credit 鄧 that he had led China to avoid a fatal mistake although with the cost of a number of young lives and unintended consequence from outside.
From my point of view, 鄧 by no means a bloody butcher. He didn't escalate the crisis of 6/4 to crack down in a grand scale. A bald assumption, more lives might have been saved when he had stopped further civil unrest.