The late Chinese president Deng Xiaoping feared house arrest before sending troops to quell student protests at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, according to secret documents obtained by CBS Television.
"Anarchy gets worse every day. If this continues, we could even end up under house arrest," Mr Deng allegedly told a meeting of his inner circle before the massacre.
The documents were smuggled into the US by a Chinese official who was interviewed by CBS television's Mike Wallace, in a report for his 60 Minutes programme to be broadcast on tomorrow.
The official, who remains anonymous and is disguised on camera because he wants to return to China, said he plans to use the documents in a book titled The Tiananmen Papers, under the pseudonym Zhang Liang.
The debate between Chinese leaders on the use of force against the Chinese students confirmed a power struggle between China's hard-liners and reformers that persists today, CBS said in a statement.
Chinese experts quoted by CBS believe the documents are authentic and proof that hardliners like Mr Li Peng, currently number two in the Chinese government, and retired Gen Wang Zhen urged Mr Deng - who died in 1997 at 92 years of age - to suppress the students.
Other Chinese leaders such as former Communist Party Chairman Zhao Ziyang, who is currently under house arrest, pressed for a more democratic solution.