I speak only for myself
My take is that was a hard time for average Chinese, the living standard was far behind that in the western countries and what was worse is some people got rich through nepotism, and Chinese were trained by chairman Mao to oppose any unfair treatment, so they took the street to against the unfairness.
Western countries and certain group in China (especially some groups in Hongkong and Taiwan) realized quickly there was a great opportunity in the incident for them to grab more interests or to achieve their agenda, so they moved quickly by contacting with leaders of students and supplying money and other resources, just like what they did in so many countries. The CCP of course won't allow that happen and because the majority of Chinese did not support the movement, so CCP got things under control successfully.
Every developing country which wants to keep independence will have to go through this stage, China is no exception and that was the moment. Some 200 students/soldiers/civilians killed which is very sad.
However, I do believe CCP was right to take the decisive action. And I support CCP to be the ruling party, given its past record.