Why did Che leave the Congo?

[parecon3]

Okay, so I just finished reading My Friend Che by Ricardo Rojo and in the book he says that Che left the Congo because it was either the Soviet Union or China who were pressuring Cuba to remove their troops. But... I have also read The Complete Bolivian Diaries of Che Guevara and the editor of the diaries in his introduction said that Che left the Congo because the Congolese were not willing to risk their lives and fight to take back the Oppressive Government.

So why did Che leave the Congo was it because of the Soviet Union and/or China pressuring Cuba and/or the Congolese guerrillas unwillingness to fight or is it none of these?

[cubalibra]

I think it was a little of both.

[Wiesty]

well i dont know why he left, but after he did in like 64 he had a lotta debates with the cappies on the congelese crime

[Reuben]

iread the castaneda bio when i wwas 12 and seem to remember (although i am unsure) that the forces were about to be militarily tdefeated and he had to get the fuck out - i seem to remember him being taken over a lake

sorry my memory of the biog is pretty sketchy - my heads beenstuck in books about early modern europe for too long

[Subversive Pessimist]

From what I understand:

- The congolese were a bunch of corrupt, lazy cowards who didn't care about overthrowing the state

- Those who fought didn't want to be trained by the Cubans

- Kabila was, just like the other congolese, more interested in sex, money and luxury then to fight against the state and the armed forces

- Almost all of the Cuban revolutionaries were killed

Che played with the thought afterwards to stand alone as an example of courage, but he left after thinking a while

[Guerrilla22]

Che felt that the war was going nowhere, on top of that the cappie backed Congolese where advancing rapidly on their position, and they had no choice but to withdraw or be killed.

[Severian]

Partly the military situation was becoming hopeless as Guerilla22 says. This in turn was partly because of the worthlessness of the Congolese guerillas' leadership (including Laurent Kabila btw) as others have said.

There's another reason though: the African governments (aka Organization of African Unity) had asked the Cubans to leave. The whole operation would have been impossible without supplies coming through Tanzanian territory for example.

Che insisted on getting the OAU request in writing before withdrawing, to make it clear he wasn't abandoning the Congolese but rather leaving because he was asked to.

All this is in his Congo diary.