Che Guevara???

[DoCt SPARTAN]

Was che a murder or hero i have know clue please tell me your opions and why so i can learn. thx

[MP5]

Well he did kill people in the Cuban revolution so that does make him a killer but he also helped to liberate the Cuban people from the American backed Batista dictatorship. Cuba was little more then a colony for the US to exploit as many American companies as well as the Mafia profited from the Batista government. The Proletariat got absolutely nothing in return in the meantime while the various American interests as well as the national bourgeois made a killing off of the system which was corrupt from the bottom up. Any dissent was met with torture or death.

Say what you want about how the Cuban revolution turned out but Cuba under Batista was far worse off then Cuba after the revolution. Che was himself a fairly ruthless leader and had no problem killing people who where traitors, deserters, etc but then again not many armies did in the past.

I certainly wouldn't call him a murderer and although the cult of personality surrounding him is still off putting to this day one does have to admire his spirit to fight against the oppression he saw.

[Comrade Jandar]

Being murderer and hero are not mutually exclusive.

[Paul Pott]

He was a hero who killed traitors, deserters, and the rubbish from the old regime.

You can make the same arguments about Che that you can make about Spartacus. The Roman elite dragged his name through the mud for centuries, only to have him come down to us as a hero of sorts. Miami and Uncle Sam didn't even get that far.

[MP5]

Being murderer and hero are not mutually exclusive.

Well being a killer and a hero are certainly not mutually exclusive. In Che's case there is nothing to suggest he did anything other then kill enemy combatants as well as spies and such which is perfectly within the generally accepted rules of war.

[Captain Ahab]

He was a hero of course. Most of the propaganda against Che is deceitful in many ways from making it look like the torturers and murderers he executed in La Cabaña were innocent, that he had any actual say in the execution of the twelve year old, and taking his comments on nuclear war out of context.

[ellipsis]

A lot of what you read about che being a murderer comes from un-accredited "academic" in the cuban exile community, based on the testimony of exiles. AKAIK this is all bullshit, che didn't personally execute prisoners for kicks.

[Yazman]

If you call Che a murderer then you might as well say everybody who ever fought in a war of any kind is a murderer. An armed revolution is not a tea party and people are going to die at some point. That's just the unfortunate reality.

[DoCt SPARTAN]

this helped a lot thanks i think a have a better understanding!

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Read Jon Anderson's book on Che. Best work out there on him.

[DasFapital]

He was a murderer. Just like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln...

[pastradamus]

Che, Like anyone else was a complex. He believed in his goals and let nothing get in his way so in that sense he was ruthless. But in my opinion ruthlessness is the best way to win a fight. Guevara was a qualified doctor, and the fact that he did put a pistol to peoples heads and kill them makes him all the more fascinating in my opinon.

Why would a man of medicine kill people?

Well the simple answer is that he, like every human that has ever lived is a product of their environment. Guevara was born to a relatively middle-class family and was consistent with that culture. That is until himself and Alberto Granada traveled up through south and Central America. This had a profound effect on the young Che.

He witnessed many hardships of Whites, Blacks and especially indigenous people. I remember him talking about a boat trip he went on where the indigenous people had to travel on a shoddy raft towed along by the main boat which was rather Luxurious for those times. Che felt disgusted at the time and these injustices changed him.

So when Che met up with Fidel he agreed with his plans to overthrow the Batista Government and subsequently participate in a successful and overthrew the most corrupt leader in the Caribbean.

Che is cultural icon for his ability to provoke empathy amongst spoiled youth of the west.

He is a man that wore his heart on his sleeve and wasn't afraid to fight and stand his ground in the cause for freedom, equality and justice.

The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "The most complete human being of our Generation". I for one think that is true.

Also Id like to add that it is rather fitting that you have "V" from V for Vendetta as your avatar (I love that movie BTW). The difference between V and Che was that Che sought vengeance for other people whereas V just sought it for himself.

Pastra.

[Ostrinski]

Well saidPlease don't post one or two word responses such as this. I won't warn you because you are new, but generally we try to discourage a chatty atmosphere in the main forums to maintain a standard of discussion that promotes a certain level of quality.

[ola.]

When I served in Iraq in 2006, I remember how an old Iraqi man, struggling to walk with his cane, had very slowly walked to a group of American soldiers, looked them straight in the eye and told them in Arabic "Someday, we'll have a Che Guevara of our own, and he'll teach you Americans again." The soldiers didn't need to understand what he said. Simply mentioning Guevara's name had the soldiers kicking and beating the Iraqi man to the ground.

[one10]

Che Guevara was a revolutionary hero who assisted greatly in liberating the Cubans from Batista's regime and then later went on to assist other revolutionary struggles which eventually led to his death, making him a martyr for revolution worldwide.

Che Guevara was not a murderer by any means. Take it from a Cuban-American was born and raised in Miami by Cuban exiles, the belly of the beast for anti-Cuban revolutionary propaganda. I've heard it all.

[Deliverous]

Che Guevara was only a murderer in the sense that he acted outside the laws of the Batista dictatorship. For me, Che Guevara was a man guided by a clear political objective, who dedicated his entire life to the cause of socialism. Those who call him a murderer in a negative sense will usually to so because they fundamentally disagree with his politics.

[one10]

Che Guevara was only a murderer in the sense that he acted outside the laws of the Batista dictatorship. For me, Che Guevara was a man guided by a clear political objective, who dedicated his entire life to the cause of socialism. Those who call him a murderer in a negative sense will usually to so because they fundamentally disagree with his politics.

Murderer is not the proper word as it is connected to being a criminal. Che was a revolutionary and like all revolutionaries involved in an armed struggle, he was bound to shoot and kill those he was revolting against.

Their victory in Cuba eventually led to the execution (many of them public) of key members of Batista's government. Che Guevara was appointed to preside over these first executions.

None of this makes him a murderer. He was a revolutionary.

[Goblin]

Che was a great revolutionary and a hero in my opinion. But like others, he did make some mistakes.

[one10]

Che was a great revolutionary and a hero in my opinion. But like others, he did make some mistakes.

Pardon the cliche, but no one is perfect.

Che is one of the most complete human beings to have ever existed in my opinion.

[Lev Bronsteinovich]

Che was a contradictory fellow. A genuine hero of the Cuban Revolution, he was never quite able to transcend the peasant army model for revolution. He was clearly committed to international revolution as he gave his life to that cause. However, his idea of how to do it was not based on proletarian revolution and doomed to failure. I don't know what his take on repression of left critics of the Castro regime was, but I'm guessing he supported that.

[one10]

Che was a contradictory fellow. A genuine hero of the Cuban Revolution, he was never quite able to transcend the peasant army model for revolution. He was clearly committed to international revolution as he gave his life to that cause. However, his idea of how to do it was not based on proletarian revolution and doomed to failure.

One cannot simply blame Che Guevara for the failure in Bolivia. Let's not forget about the backing, training, and assistance the militaristic dictatorship of Bolivia received from the CIA in stopping Che. The CIA knew that Che was a threat to the interests of the American capitalists exploiting Latin American countries and did something about it. The same thing occured with the Contras in Nicaragua. The CIA played a major role in eliminating leftist movements and legitimate governments (such as Allende in Chile) from Latin America during the Cold War.

[Old Bolshie]

It may seem strange that the man who proclaimed "patria o muerte" before an UN Assembly was undoubtedly one of the most internationalist revolutionaries in History.

Born in Argentina, one of the key elements of the Cuban revolution, fought in Africa and died fighting for socialism in Bolivia.

He understood the importance of exporting the revolution during a time when the international class struggle had been excluded from the USSR vocabulary long ago. I think that his international commitment to the revolution was one of the fundamental points of his divergence with Fidel and a motive of conflict with USSR interests. This is why I tend to see Fidel Castro more in line with USSR tradition unlike Che who always preserved his autonomy from any foreign leader or regime. His aim was to unite the whole South American Continent under the socialist banner. Here I see him close to the communist spirit before the consolidation of "Socialism in One Country" when exporting the revolution still mattered.

[RATMfan1992]

He killed people who had committed humans rights abuse, war crimes, atrocities during the US backed Batista regime.