MaxB
4th October 2002, 23:34
Are we here in search of facts or are we here to rant and create myth. Was Robin Hood a brave, altruistic hero, or was he a murdering thief that thru the years was made into a hero----nobody really knows. But Che only died about 30+ years ago. Yes, he was a dreamer and an idealist. He was also arrogant, calculated, and an assasin in charge of firing squads at "La Cabana".
Che also failed at most of his adventures outside Cuba---AND THIS IS A FACT.
CHE GUEVARA IN QUESTIONS
PURPOSE OF THE PAPER
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, born June 14th 1928 in Argentina and killed in the Bolivian jungle on October 9th 1967. Between these two dates, Che Guevara was very active. The purpose of the paper is to present the life of one famous guerilla fighter, but also to study his writings (theories, thoughts and sayings) scattered in many personal diaries, in official speeches and in socio-political texts. So this will be more than a biography. It will be a return to the 1960’s when the relations between the United States and Latin America were quite tense. A time when the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western World was at its peak. And, finally, a time of hope and renewal as political parties and social movements created new ideologies, mostly leftwing ideologies such as variations of Marxism or on socialism.
This paper is aimed at any one who is interested in understanding what went on in the 1960’s: the politics, the society and most particularly the revolutionary movements and the various guerillas that appeared here and there.
THE TOPIC
Che Guevara is a good central character to understand the 1960’s. He was born in Argentina in 1928 during the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War. These events were naturally very important on the international stage; but they were also important in the Guevara household, as his parents were part of different Aid Committees for the refugees fleeing these wars (Anderson, 1997). So at a very early age, Che Guevara developed a sense of justice (and injustice).
Later on, he made two important trips around Latin America. His reason was to better know his fellowmen. The first one, in 1951, took him to Chile and Peru; the second one, in 1953 brought him to Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala (Les débuts d’Ernesto, 1997). These two strips highly influenced his vision of Latin America. To see how badly Natives and mestizos were treated and how American companies controlled the economy, Guevara gradually concluded that the roots of many socio-economic problems of Latin America came from the American influence (Anderson, 1997)
To better understand the situation, and to try to come up with a viable solution (mostly based on socialist ideas and ideals, Che started to read various authors in order to come up with his own view on socialism. He read Benito Mussolini to understand fascism; Joseph Stalin on Marxism; Alfredo Palacios on Justice; Emile Zola on Christianity; Jack London gave him a Marxist description of social classes; he also read the biography and the speeches of Lenin and, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital (Anderson, 1997).
When Che Guevara met Fidel Castro in Mexico in July 1955, he was looking for a place to put these theories into practice. Castro admitted this “Stranger” (i.e. non Cuban) into his group of rebels and in 1956, guerilla training began in an abandoned villa to the north of Mexico City (Les débuts d’Ernesto, 1997).
Then the Cuban adventure started. On December 2nd 1956, 82 men landed on a Cuban beach to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. To do this, they had to fight against 35,000 soldiers that were still loyal to the regime. On January 17th 1957, the rebels had a major victory against the military barrack of La Plata. This first victory endeared the rebels to the population (1956-59 Cuba, 1997).
On January 7, 1957 a New Cuba was born and major changes had to be done. To implement these changes faster and to make sure that the Revolution did not have any enemies, purges were organized and Guevara was in charge of them. In a few days he ordered the execution of 200 soldiers and policemen. This task put Guevara at the forefront of the revolution and built his reputation as a radical extremist who would stop at nothing to attain his goals (En pleine gloire, 1997).
Then, as Fidel Castro and his men were trying to build a new Cuba, Guevara was successively in charge of the agrarian reform, President of the National Bank and Minister of Economy. But this lifestyle was not for him. Rapidly he got bored and found that the revolution was not evolving fast enough. Also, he did not like much the fact that Cuba, which fought for its independence, was getting more dependent on the Soviet Union. His speeches and writings denounced that fact. His attitude became an embarrassment for Castro and when Guevara asked to go to Congo to fight oppression; Fidel was quite pleased to see him go (En pleine gloire, 1997).
So in April 1966, Guevara renounced all of his functions and his Cuban citizenship to go to Congo. This expedition was to last two years (Géopolitique, 1997) .His goal was to continue the fight started by Patrick Lumumba who was killed in January 1961 (1965 Le Congo, 1997). But the whole thing was a dismal failure. Guevara did not understand Africa and the Congolese did not need his help. The leaders were fighting amongst themselves, nothing was organized and the death of his mother also affected him deeply.(Wainthrop, 2000)
Where to go now? Castro has read his farewell letter where he renounced his citizenship. Needless to say that a return to Cuba was impossible. As Guevara wanted to pursue the revolution, he decided to go to Bolivia. So on November 3rd 1966, Guevara took the identity of a salesman from Uruguay, Adolfo Mena and entered Bolivia.( En pleine gloire, 1997).
His goal was to create a revolutionary camp and to launch as many attacks as he could. Why Bolivia? Because of its location at the center of the continent and because he wanted to help the Natives (1966-67 La Bolivie, 1997). But this expedition did not work at all. First, the camp was in a very isolated region. Second, the Natives were not interested. Third, the local Communist Party did not want to cooperate as Moscow did not want Guevara to succeed. Indeed, a success would have meant that the Soviet Union’s influence was not needed on the continent and Moscow did not want this at all (30th anniversary of Che Guevara's death, 1997). Ernesto “Che” Guevara was captured on October 8th 1967 and executed the next day by Bolivian soldiers under the orders of the CIA (Du Congo à la Bolivie, 1997).
His dramatic end triggered a huge uproar. The photograph of his corpse was seen around the world and a series of praise, eulogies and odes were heard form all over. Because he has been executed without trial and almost in secret, the event emphasized the brutality of the Bolivian regime and by association, other governments of Latin America that were blindly obeying the United States.
His death transformed him into this perpetual freedom fighter that has been killed by a very oppressive system. He became the symbol for many guerilla fighters such as the Colombian Army of Liberation; The Revolutionary Movement Tupac Amaru (which kept hostages in the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru, from December 1996 to April 1997); and the Zapatista movement in Mexico and its commandante Marcos (Le Mythe, 1997)
VARIOUS ARGUMENTS
Like any other historical character, Guevara is both hated and revered. His biographers and various scholars studying him since 1997 (the 30th anniversary of his death sparkled a new interest in him and many books and articles were written) are not agreeing much.
Some emphasize his series of failures. According to them, the only reason why he succeeded in Cuba was because of Castro. They also criticized his theories that were rather simplistic and impossible to implement anywhere, anytime. There are also American scholars who focus mostly on his ruthlessness and that he never hesitated to sacrifice people in his revolutionary quest. Comrades were shot for treason (alleged or true) and were abandoned in case of emergency retreat.
Opposite to this, are the people who only see his dedication and sacrifice to a cause, no matter if this cause was realistic or not. They also admire his courage and realism in battle. They also mention the fact that he never compromised any of his ideals. He even died for them. These authors admire the purity of Guevara’s morality and dedication as a revolutionary.
THE POINT OF VIEW
The point of view of this paper is to explain, if this is possible, Che Guevara. He can be considered as a phenomenon. But this phenomenon was rooted into two well defined spheres: the 1960’s and all of their components and the realities of Latin America. Due to this, chances are that the paper will be highly critical of the United States and its policies of the times and might look favorably on leftist movements. Then again, at times this paper will also be anti-socialist and anti-violence.
RESEARCH QUESTION
Because this project is part of a series of books called “… en questions”, it is difficult to come up with a very precise research question. But as of now, this question is:
How did Che Guevara become a prototype of a guerilla fighter? How did he influence his generation?
The hypothesis is:
Che Guevara became a prototype of a guerilla fighter because he was the first one to use the media and to write about his strategies. He also kept writing and lecturing on the necessity to spread the revolution. His universal vision helped him develop many theories on the topic. Then his death turned him into a myth or a martyr, and disadvantaged people took up arms and followed his example: fighting against any form of oppression.
THE MAIN SUBJECTS
To understand all of this, this paper will have six parts.
The first part will be about the 1960’s, the decade of changes. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was at its worst level. It was also a decade of new ideas. The Baby Boomers wanted to reinvent the world. They wanted to try new things. In this huge wave of change, Guevara had many things to observe and analyze.
The second part will focus mostly on what was going on in Latin America. Politically, the left was getting stronger, and as a result the right was protecting itself even more. The military was better organized and the United States helped maintain the conservative parties in power in order to guarantee the status quo in the continent that it considered as its own backyard.
The third part will introduce Ernesto Che Guevara. This will be a combination of biography and chronology, starting with the influence of his parents; his readings, his trips around the continent and ending with his meeting with Fidel Castro.
The fourth part will describe Guevara’s revolutionary activities. His strategy, tactic and wonderful sense of organization which allowed him and his comrades to survive and win battles in the dense forest of Cuba. Then it will be about his two failed attempts to export the revolution to Congo, then to Bolivia.
The fifth part will describe and analyze his texts. Not much about his journals, but rather his theories and his long criticisms which will help the reader better understand Guevara’s impact on other revolutionary movements.
Finally, the last part will talk about his influence. Did people admire the man? The Myth? Or both? Why is he still popular today? These questions might be difficult to answer as they depend on popular perceptions, but it will be an interesting challenge to try to do it.
To give coherence to all this, and use as many points of view as possible, the main social sciences used for this project will be history, political science and sociology.
History is unavoidable if one wants to explain the context of the 1960’s. It will help explaining the Cold War, the American involvement in Latin America and the importance of the left in political movements.
Political science is essential to understand the theories of Ernesto Che Guevara. Also, it will help explain what is the right and what is the left. And will be quite useful to analyze the American foreign policies toward Latin America.
And sociology will be the perfect tool to understand the impact and influence Guevara had, be it in the 1960’s or today. What makes someone a hero? What is a myth? And most importantly, is Che still be relevant thirty years after his death?
This paper will use the historical comparative method as different points of view are needed to explain this character. The primary sources will be all the speeches and writings made by Che Guevara. There will also be some excerpts from his diaries. These sources are essential if one wants to truly understand his theories.
Che also failed at most of his adventures outside Cuba---AND THIS IS A FACT.
CHE GUEVARA IN QUESTIONS
PURPOSE OF THE PAPER
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, born June 14th 1928 in Argentina and killed in the Bolivian jungle on October 9th 1967. Between these two dates, Che Guevara was very active. The purpose of the paper is to present the life of one famous guerilla fighter, but also to study his writings (theories, thoughts and sayings) scattered in many personal diaries, in official speeches and in socio-political texts. So this will be more than a biography. It will be a return to the 1960’s when the relations between the United States and Latin America were quite tense. A time when the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western World was at its peak. And, finally, a time of hope and renewal as political parties and social movements created new ideologies, mostly leftwing ideologies such as variations of Marxism or on socialism.
This paper is aimed at any one who is interested in understanding what went on in the 1960’s: the politics, the society and most particularly the revolutionary movements and the various guerillas that appeared here and there.
THE TOPIC
Che Guevara is a good central character to understand the 1960’s. He was born in Argentina in 1928 during the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War. These events were naturally very important on the international stage; but they were also important in the Guevara household, as his parents were part of different Aid Committees for the refugees fleeing these wars (Anderson, 1997). So at a very early age, Che Guevara developed a sense of justice (and injustice).
Later on, he made two important trips around Latin America. His reason was to better know his fellowmen. The first one, in 1951, took him to Chile and Peru; the second one, in 1953 brought him to Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala (Les débuts d’Ernesto, 1997). These two strips highly influenced his vision of Latin America. To see how badly Natives and mestizos were treated and how American companies controlled the economy, Guevara gradually concluded that the roots of many socio-economic problems of Latin America came from the American influence (Anderson, 1997)
To better understand the situation, and to try to come up with a viable solution (mostly based on socialist ideas and ideals, Che started to read various authors in order to come up with his own view on socialism. He read Benito Mussolini to understand fascism; Joseph Stalin on Marxism; Alfredo Palacios on Justice; Emile Zola on Christianity; Jack London gave him a Marxist description of social classes; he also read the biography and the speeches of Lenin and, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital (Anderson, 1997).
When Che Guevara met Fidel Castro in Mexico in July 1955, he was looking for a place to put these theories into practice. Castro admitted this “Stranger” (i.e. non Cuban) into his group of rebels and in 1956, guerilla training began in an abandoned villa to the north of Mexico City (Les débuts d’Ernesto, 1997).
Then the Cuban adventure started. On December 2nd 1956, 82 men landed on a Cuban beach to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. To do this, they had to fight against 35,000 soldiers that were still loyal to the regime. On January 17th 1957, the rebels had a major victory against the military barrack of La Plata. This first victory endeared the rebels to the population (1956-59 Cuba, 1997).
On January 7, 1957 a New Cuba was born and major changes had to be done. To implement these changes faster and to make sure that the Revolution did not have any enemies, purges were organized and Guevara was in charge of them. In a few days he ordered the execution of 200 soldiers and policemen. This task put Guevara at the forefront of the revolution and built his reputation as a radical extremist who would stop at nothing to attain his goals (En pleine gloire, 1997).
Then, as Fidel Castro and his men were trying to build a new Cuba, Guevara was successively in charge of the agrarian reform, President of the National Bank and Minister of Economy. But this lifestyle was not for him. Rapidly he got bored and found that the revolution was not evolving fast enough. Also, he did not like much the fact that Cuba, which fought for its independence, was getting more dependent on the Soviet Union. His speeches and writings denounced that fact. His attitude became an embarrassment for Castro and when Guevara asked to go to Congo to fight oppression; Fidel was quite pleased to see him go (En pleine gloire, 1997).
So in April 1966, Guevara renounced all of his functions and his Cuban citizenship to go to Congo. This expedition was to last two years (Géopolitique, 1997) .His goal was to continue the fight started by Patrick Lumumba who was killed in January 1961 (1965 Le Congo, 1997). But the whole thing was a dismal failure. Guevara did not understand Africa and the Congolese did not need his help. The leaders were fighting amongst themselves, nothing was organized and the death of his mother also affected him deeply.(Wainthrop, 2000)
Where to go now? Castro has read his farewell letter where he renounced his citizenship. Needless to say that a return to Cuba was impossible. As Guevara wanted to pursue the revolution, he decided to go to Bolivia. So on November 3rd 1966, Guevara took the identity of a salesman from Uruguay, Adolfo Mena and entered Bolivia.( En pleine gloire, 1997).
His goal was to create a revolutionary camp and to launch as many attacks as he could. Why Bolivia? Because of its location at the center of the continent and because he wanted to help the Natives (1966-67 La Bolivie, 1997). But this expedition did not work at all. First, the camp was in a very isolated region. Second, the Natives were not interested. Third, the local Communist Party did not want to cooperate as Moscow did not want Guevara to succeed. Indeed, a success would have meant that the Soviet Union’s influence was not needed on the continent and Moscow did not want this at all (30th anniversary of Che Guevara's death, 1997). Ernesto “Che” Guevara was captured on October 8th 1967 and executed the next day by Bolivian soldiers under the orders of the CIA (Du Congo à la Bolivie, 1997).
His dramatic end triggered a huge uproar. The photograph of his corpse was seen around the world and a series of praise, eulogies and odes were heard form all over. Because he has been executed without trial and almost in secret, the event emphasized the brutality of the Bolivian regime and by association, other governments of Latin America that were blindly obeying the United States.
His death transformed him into this perpetual freedom fighter that has been killed by a very oppressive system. He became the symbol for many guerilla fighters such as the Colombian Army of Liberation; The Revolutionary Movement Tupac Amaru (which kept hostages in the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru, from December 1996 to April 1997); and the Zapatista movement in Mexico and its commandante Marcos (Le Mythe, 1997)
VARIOUS ARGUMENTS
Like any other historical character, Guevara is both hated and revered. His biographers and various scholars studying him since 1997 (the 30th anniversary of his death sparkled a new interest in him and many books and articles were written) are not agreeing much.
Some emphasize his series of failures. According to them, the only reason why he succeeded in Cuba was because of Castro. They also criticized his theories that were rather simplistic and impossible to implement anywhere, anytime. There are also American scholars who focus mostly on his ruthlessness and that he never hesitated to sacrifice people in his revolutionary quest. Comrades were shot for treason (alleged or true) and were abandoned in case of emergency retreat.
Opposite to this, are the people who only see his dedication and sacrifice to a cause, no matter if this cause was realistic or not. They also admire his courage and realism in battle. They also mention the fact that he never compromised any of his ideals. He even died for them. These authors admire the purity of Guevara’s morality and dedication as a revolutionary.
THE POINT OF VIEW
The point of view of this paper is to explain, if this is possible, Che Guevara. He can be considered as a phenomenon. But this phenomenon was rooted into two well defined spheres: the 1960’s and all of their components and the realities of Latin America. Due to this, chances are that the paper will be highly critical of the United States and its policies of the times and might look favorably on leftist movements. Then again, at times this paper will also be anti-socialist and anti-violence.
RESEARCH QUESTION
Because this project is part of a series of books called “… en questions”, it is difficult to come up with a very precise research question. But as of now, this question is:
How did Che Guevara become a prototype of a guerilla fighter? How did he influence his generation?
The hypothesis is:
Che Guevara became a prototype of a guerilla fighter because he was the first one to use the media and to write about his strategies. He also kept writing and lecturing on the necessity to spread the revolution. His universal vision helped him develop many theories on the topic. Then his death turned him into a myth or a martyr, and disadvantaged people took up arms and followed his example: fighting against any form of oppression.
THE MAIN SUBJECTS
To understand all of this, this paper will have six parts.
The first part will be about the 1960’s, the decade of changes. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was at its worst level. It was also a decade of new ideas. The Baby Boomers wanted to reinvent the world. They wanted to try new things. In this huge wave of change, Guevara had many things to observe and analyze.
The second part will focus mostly on what was going on in Latin America. Politically, the left was getting stronger, and as a result the right was protecting itself even more. The military was better organized and the United States helped maintain the conservative parties in power in order to guarantee the status quo in the continent that it considered as its own backyard.
The third part will introduce Ernesto Che Guevara. This will be a combination of biography and chronology, starting with the influence of his parents; his readings, his trips around the continent and ending with his meeting with Fidel Castro.
The fourth part will describe Guevara’s revolutionary activities. His strategy, tactic and wonderful sense of organization which allowed him and his comrades to survive and win battles in the dense forest of Cuba. Then it will be about his two failed attempts to export the revolution to Congo, then to Bolivia.
The fifth part will describe and analyze his texts. Not much about his journals, but rather his theories and his long criticisms which will help the reader better understand Guevara’s impact on other revolutionary movements.
Finally, the last part will talk about his influence. Did people admire the man? The Myth? Or both? Why is he still popular today? These questions might be difficult to answer as they depend on popular perceptions, but it will be an interesting challenge to try to do it.
To give coherence to all this, and use as many points of view as possible, the main social sciences used for this project will be history, political science and sociology.
History is unavoidable if one wants to explain the context of the 1960’s. It will help explaining the Cold War, the American involvement in Latin America and the importance of the left in political movements.
Political science is essential to understand the theories of Ernesto Che Guevara. Also, it will help explain what is the right and what is the left. And will be quite useful to analyze the American foreign policies toward Latin America.
And sociology will be the perfect tool to understand the impact and influence Guevara had, be it in the 1960’s or today. What makes someone a hero? What is a myth? And most importantly, is Che still be relevant thirty years after his death?
This paper will use the historical comparative method as different points of view are needed to explain this character. The primary sources will be all the speeches and writings made by Che Guevara. There will also be some excerpts from his diaries. These sources are essential if one wants to truly understand his theories.