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“If the missiles had remained, we would have fired them against the very heart of the U.S., including New York. The victory of socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims.”
— Che Guevara, November 1962
Many of the violent protesters at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, in July were clad in standard-issue anarchist-nihilist riot gear: Black balaclavas and hoodies are de rigueur for the well-turned-out Black Bloc Molotov Cocktail-chucker. And there were, of course, the Che Guevara t‑shirts. You’ll likely find your local Antifa fighter decked out in one, too.
Fifty years after his execution in Bolivia on October 9, 1967, Ernesto “Che” Guevara remains a revolutionary icon.
It’s not hard to see why. Ideological certainty mixed with dashing revolutionary derring-do is a potent cocktail. Just ask Valerio Morucci, terrorist gunman of the Italian Red Brigades:
“Guevara was mythical. In other words, he had the ideology AND the adventure. And it doesn’t get any better than that. He was a double-myth — Communism on the one side and daring on the other.”
In a way, it all comes back to one photograph, taken by fashion photographer Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960. Fidel Castro’s red right hand in the Cuban Revolution Che gazes off to our left, his eyes steely with intense resolve, a beret cocked over his lank, unkempt locks his firm-yet-sensuous mouth framed by a scraggly beatnik beard. The photograph, titled by Korda “Guerrillero Heroico,” invented guerilla chic.
That right there, taken at the very beginning of the weird and wild decade of the 1960s, is a rock star.
The photograph hung on Korda’s studio wall until 1967. In the tumultuous year of 1968 Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick’s brilliantly stylized the shot into an image titled “Viva Che!” and it became an icon on revolutionary posters and college dorm walls, where the Guerrillero Heroico’s smoldering gaze might compete with, say, Jim Morrison’s.
Such is the power of an image. What of Che the man?
Che was born and raised in Argentina, to a middle class family. His political awakening was genuine; it would be hard to overstate the poverty and misery that plagued South America in the first half of the 20th century, and the U.S. was guilty as charged when it came to the exploitation of resources and cheap labor and meddling in the politics and economies of our southern neighbors. Revolutionary communism offered an alternative. At the time, it must have looked like justice.
But, of course, communism didn’t offer justice, but another round of oppression and repression. It did offer a measure of revenge, though, and for revolutionaries like Che, that was on its own a fine, stiff drink.
Che was among Fidel Castro’s handful of guerilla fighters who, against all odds sailed across the Gulf of Mexico to shipwreck on Cuba’s shores, survived in the Sierra Maestra mountains and managed to overthrow the U.S.(and Mob)–backed regime of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He was a puritan and a fanatic. He was an iron disciplinarian and disdained individualism in all its forms. He had little tolerance for anybody who had less pure revolutionary zeal than he did.
Che favored the exceptionally bloodthirsty Chinese variant of Communism; he despised rock-and-roll, which he considered decadent and delinquent, and he hated homosexuals, whom he rounded up and put in work camps. He did not tolerate rebels. Hell, he didn’t tolerate dissent at all.
He was not “cool,” no matter how he wore his beret.
He wasn’t much of a guerilla tactician, either, as his disastrous campaign in Bolivia demonstrated. And he was an absolute catastrophe as Minister of Industry and the head of the Cuban National Bank, contributing mightily to Cuba becoming a Soviet-dependent economic basket case.
What Che was best at was killing. He was a very capable executioner. He handled the setting up of secret police in Cuba and rounded up enemies of the Revolution for wholesale shootings up against la paredón (the wall). He liked it. It is a delicious historical irony that he was captured alive and met the same fate at the hands of the Bolivian Special Forces Rangers.
Che liked killing. He said so often, and his deeds confirmed his words.
Which brings us to the point — because Che is not a mere historical figure from a different era, an era of dirty proxy wars in the hinterlands of the world. He is with us still. It is commonly said that the “rebels” and celebrities who wear their Che t‑shirts just don’t know who the man really was. They just like the image. And that may be largely true. His ideology and career certainly don’t jibe with anti-authoritarian, pro-gay, anti-racist, tolerant co-existence.
But I submit to you that many of those who wave the banner of Che Guevara DO know who and what he was. They know he was a stone killer — and they dig it. Black Bloc anarchists and their fellow travelers are nihilists. They’d be perfectly comfortable with Che’s statement that “The victory of socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims.” Hell, it doesn’t even require the victory of socialism to get them off, as long as The System comes crashing down.
We would do well to remember that. Give that “Antifa” kid in the Che t‑shirt the chance and he might just be delighted to push you up against la paredón and exact a little revenge for whatever evils he thinks The System has inflicted upon him.
Matthew says
Nice to see a post about the real monster Che was. I do think it is an ironic hell that a communist’s picture became a mass-marketed icon, however.
The more you peel this back, the more you discover how pervasive, persistent and pernicious his influence has been.
I have to say that I agree that it’s nice to see a Che article that presents him as he was, a bloody (and apparently smelly, some say) radical killer who was a dunce as a tactician.
His ongoing popularity says a lot about effective poster art. But for the impressive poster art rendition of a much more poorly framed photograph, he’d be mostly forgotten by now. What he did should never be forgotten.
Sharon ouka says
Great read thank you! Really thought provoking never heard of this guy!
Thanks Sharon.
RLT says
At one point in his book (which is short enough that everyone wearing that t‑shirt should read it), Guevara writes about a revolutionary under his command who committed some military infraction or other — I forget exactly what it was. It could have even been something larger, like cowardice. At any rate, Guevara’s punishment was to take the man’s weapons during the next series of engagements, forcing him to fight bare-handed. Unsurprisingly the man was mortally injured, and Guevara describes his dying words, thanking Che for his chance to redeem himself.
Not only is this piss-poor leadership and resource management, but the whole passage seethes with barely-restrained eroticism. It’s obvious that this is how Guevara got his jollies off. If I was Castro, I’d have sent that bloodthirsty bastard packing too, but I doubt that Che minded. There were plenty of other conflict zones where he feed the appetites that the Cuban revolution had wakened in him.
RLT — I think you touch on something central here: Che’s boodlust was actually lust. He got off on it.
Matthew says
Yet, the guy remains a hero to millions of ignorant people.
The real Che comes across as a the type of bad guy that people think is unrealistic when it appears in fiction: the villain obsessed with killing. Hannibal Lector did not have anything on him.
Lane Batot says
.….Yeah, but at least Hannibal Lector ate what he killed(ahem!)
That’s so bad… so good.
RLT says
And as you point out, many of those who idolize him — themselves members of a sheltered upper-middle-class — are drawn to conflict for the same reasons Che was. And it ain’t the victory of the people over the oligarchy…
Give me a street gang any day of the week. I have far more empathy for kids becoming outlaws because of the cycle of poverty than for the sons of doctors who want to pretend they weren’t privileged growing up.
Stay tuned next week on this channel…
Saddle Tramp says
Might as well establish some food for radical thought.
Jim, looking forward to the results of all of your efforts in this long anticipated series.
You have us off to a good start as promised.
Tongue in cheek perhaps but what the heck…
“RADICALISM, n. The conservatism of to-morrow injected into the affairs of to-day.”
— Ambrose Bierce
The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary
My cautionary outro…
[Everything] is subject to interpretation or misinterpretation far and wide. What really is meant to be said rarely gets said (transparently) but I have seen a lot in RIR that comes real darn close…
Bierce always offered a pungent assessment. I’m still intrigued by the mystery of his death in the Mexican Revolution.…
Saddle Tramp says
He may then be in similar company with the perverse philosopher George Bataille who was obsessed with a photograph in which a Chinese criminal, while being chopped up and slowly flayed by executioners, rolls his eyes heavenwards in transcendent bliss.
Whoa!
Saddle Tramp says
I was of course (and I hope obviously) was referring to Che and the previous “lust” comment. Thought I replied to it singularly, but who knows…
john roberts says
That photo was mentioned in one of the Hannibal Lecter books. The guy had tried to assassinate a Chinese official and apparently the executioners were feeling lenient that day. They gave the guy opium before his Death of a Thousand Cuts. He was higher than a kite.
Pfleging Jim says
I’m sure we’re only a short distance from seeing a stylized image of Kim Jong Un worn by disaffected middle class college sophomores. He certainly appeals as a beta male underdog.
Perhaps a series of liberal arts classes designed to dissect the reasons North Korean brutality is apparently the fault of the United States. It’s all in the packaging.
Thank you. Great perspective!
Thx Jim.
Annie says
I will never reach my saturation point in reading about Che; the good, the bad and the ugly. A follower of “any man”, I guess we see what we want to see and turn a blind eye to the rest. Maybe if he had not been murdered by the CIA the way he was his star might have dulled over time.
But it is the life of the Young Che that intrigues me so, with eyes that could see into the soul of common man and dare to dream of a better world for that man.
“Do not raise hymns of victory on the sunless day of the battle.” ~ Ricardo Gutiérrez
Hey Annie — thanks for weighing in. You’re right: Che’s “martyrdom” created a great part of his mystique. The fact that he was captured and martyred in part because Castro wanted him out of the picture and that Che’s whole Bolivian adventure was strategically misguided and badly bungled gets left out of the tale.
Have you read Jon Lee Anderson’s biography? It’s huge and exhaustive, but fair-minded and through. Certainly the definitive work.
Annie says
Thanks for the suggestion. I put it on my list, soon to be added to my BTR stack.
Saddle Tramp says
Annie…
Just came across this in the Fall 2017 issue of JACOBIN MAGAZINE (Reason In Revolt)…
An Ad for Books from Polity Press:
CHE, MY BROHER
Juan Martin Guevara, Armelle Vincent with translation by Andrew Brown
“Page Turner” — The New Yorker
From what I can gather a kinder view dispelling
the myth. It seems to lean towards the better part of your triilogy. Each to their own bent of course.
They have this magazine at my local indie book store. Need to pick up an issue.
Brian H. says
I don’t disagree. But I will admit to the one time attraction. As a suburban teen with a “what have you got?” attitude about rebellion, revolution, outrageous behavior in general, fueled by a lot of angry (but in many ways awesome) music, I bought into the myth of Guevara. In college (in hindsight) the history and poli-sci professors didn’t so much elevate the myth but rather told some truths about U.S. foreign policy that many kids were completely unaware of and the natural rebel takes it from there. It took time and travel in the U.S. and elsewhere for me to untangle myself from those years.
Brian:
The attraction is real — I get it. Who doesn’t want to believe in the great rebel liberator? And The U.S. has much to answer for in its behavior in Latin America from 1898 through the 1980s. It is shocking when you’re introduced to our nefarious actions in the region for the first time and they pile up and pile up.
However, I maintain that one can and should be able to look with eyes that see upon, say, our actions in Guatemala without falling into the trap of approving of (or eliding) Communist repression in response.
Time and travel — with open eyes — are great educators. I’m still trying to untangle myself. RIR is part of that process. thanks for being part of it.
Brian H. says
Yep to all that and RIR is certainly holding my interest.
Glad it is. We’re working on additions that will add value.
Annie Marland says
I’ll bet high school history books don’t tell anything about that era. There was Che, Black Panthers (wearing black berets), Americans for a Democratic Society and other anarchists. The other groups weren’t savage killers but played a role in disrupting society. Che came before these other groups which really formed during the Vietnam war, but some saw Che to emulate. When I was in high school 61- 65 we spent time in the classroom discussing Che, his philosophy and how we felt. It was gruesome to see the pictures. When I went off to the U of O the Vietnam war demonstrations started, bombings, folks getting hurt, Kent State. Remembering what I learned in high school I thought of Che. Kids now need to learn about our history. Hey, are these your words Jim: “firm-yet-sensuous mouth”. YUCK!!
Based on this comment, I think you’ll find next Thursday’s post most interesting. Weather Underground; Black Liberation Army; SLA/Patty Hearst — oh my!
Sorry if the phrase created a brain worm. What am I saying? I’m not sorry about that at all!
Thanks for being here, Annie.
Annie Marland says
In Eugene I had the FBI watching my house. One of my roommates belong to SDS which was suspected of putting a bomb around PLC hall. Across the street in a black Chevrolet were 2 guys in dark suits and narrow ties. Stayed for a few hours. Reminded me of a John Belushi scene. Will be interested in reading your next release.
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Yeah, but did anyone at FBI call the DEA to warn the CIA about the SDS around the PLC?
Saddle Tramp says
Craig…
That makes me dizzy!
No wonder communication cross contamination consumes us all…
You have a mind like a Swiss Clock and comments are always timely (but of course)…
John Cornelius says
Shades of Rodolfo Fierro, el carnicero (the butcher).
Yep — perhaps a more intellectually sophisticated version, but psychologically similar.
john roberts says
I was about to post exactly the same thing, especially the getting off on killing part. Fidel was using an old Latin American tactic: the Caudillo has a second who is so fearsome people are afraid to kill the boss. But Che got out of hand and was exiled. Raoul Castro had to step into the role but he never played it as convincingly as Che.
I think Raul liked the perks and got too comfortable to be a Fierro. If he hadn’t been Fidel’s brother, he might have been an Urbina ;).
Saddle Tramp says
[* Shield plugin marked this comment as “0”. Reason: Human SPAM filter found “oy” in “comment_content” *]
My introduction to radicalism was in the year 1968.
I was a freshman in my first semester at an all boys Jesuit taught Catholic High School.
However, my World History teacher was Mr. Flynn, a very stern, powerful and strict disciplinarian. He was also the Varsity football coach. He had a very long scar down the side of his face enhancing his intimidation. If you were caught even leaning your head
on your hand with elbow on the desk, you were at risk of THE STICK. The stick was the thickness of the thick end of a billiard cue and about the same length. One day THE STICK disappeared. The threat went out that whoever took it would be writing left-handed from them on if caught. It reappeared the next day. Only one student in the class room ever dared to challenge one of the codes. He showed up in class one day with hair growing too long and was wearing blue jeans which was an infraction of the dress code. He was taken to the hallway and made to do pushups to exhaustion and then expelled until he came back in properly groomed and sartorially appropriate. He never returned.
Regarding football. We freshman practiced on an all dirt field. They had a reputation with a (still) continuing string of state championships and beyond. Once we enjoyed the luxury of going out to what they called The Ponderosa to practice on grass at the then future (and now current site) of the new coed high school which was planned for construction.
We did have coed events held at our school though. I also distinctly remember a cover band playing a good version of The Beatles song REVOLUTION at the coed dance. Mr. Flynn would probably have censured that had he been aware of such subversive activities going on.
The truth is though, that I kind of admired him in many ways. How much was bluster I could not say. It all seemed real to me at the time. The rest of the curriculum was even more rigorous (but less fearful). I never experienced or was even aware of any of those other abuses.
That and the following three more are my most vivid memories. First, THE BUFFER ZONE. He was dividing up the world in how it was politically and militarily controlled. The other details seem to evade me now.
Second:
I paraphrase here from memory only:
His definition of a Spartan was the example of a young Spartan (I think 14 years old)!who had stolen a fox. He was concealing it under his garment but when caught he would rather allow the fox to chew him to death than admit he had stolen it. I do not recall Mr. Flynn condemning this philosophy or not. My guess is that he left it hanging as I recall.
Third and last:
Now to the radicalism. The Chicago protests of the Viet Nam War were taking place. Mr. Flynn took the time out to comment on these current events one day and was condemning them fine arch conservatism fashion. The country was going to hell in a hand basket. What I recall most was his mention of paper bags of human excrement being employed in the protests.
He went on much more but I do not recall the details.
I have to say that I did go on to delve into research on the SDS and the rest. After all, I cut my teeth on Jimi Hendrix at 14. Mr. Flynn could not overpower that.
Military service had never been questioned in my upbringing.
I would have went if drafted (it stopped before I graduated H.S.) but I did register as required. I even attempted an enlistment that went astray.
I knew many Nam vets who came back. Some in wheelchairs and many severely wounded. It impacted me deeply. I took a complicated position. I must conclude now in hindsight that the radicals (by principle) had it right and I think fundamentally and rightly so in wanting to end it. Unfortunately the ones who made sincere and righteous attempts (and sacrifice) saw it all go to pieces. It had to end though, as bitter a pill as that was to swallow. Che ain’t my hero by any stretch, but I do understand it’s sources as with others (Castro included). Oppression, suppression, repression and all of it’s other cousins fan the flames and create their enemies. It gets ugly quick. We are sitting on a powder keg ourselves right now. There is always a fear of the masses. It only takes a large enough number of desperate people. We [U.S.] are one of the least in desperation in the world. Let’s hope we can avoid that and still help those who are. A optimistic realist. Is there such a thing? Jim (as always) will enlighten us more no doubt…
Flynn the Scarfaced Jesuit? That’s too good.
And NOBODY can overcome the influence of Jimi Hendrix.
I think you’ll find next week’s post interesting — you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Saddle Tramp says
[…] and there is no doubt I will (as always) find it interesting and will be out of breath trying to keep up with the RIR team. In the meantime I am perusing the Winter Edition of the HOOVER DIGEST to much interest. I take it where I find it…
RIR has opened up the floodgates!
Saddle Tramp says
Oh yes and not to be remiss…
Great double entendre by the way (I assume)…
Saddle Tramp says
Another apt lead-in and what underlies so much of this subject and it’s motivations (misguided, hypocritical or destructive) …
“A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.”
— Publious Cornelius Tacitus
(No mere coincidence here from a great and wise historian and politician).
Aye. And so, it seems, is the danger of the oppressed installing a new oppressor.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” — Friedrich W. Nietzsche
Such complicated and tragic beasts we are…
Saddle Tramp says
My point indeed.
Synchronicity strikes and abounds again.
Just reading Nietzsche’s GOOD and Evil Aphorisms. I kid you not!
A taste:
I mean in moralities, articles of faith, tastes in art, and religions, prepared as no other time ever was for a carnival in the grand style, for a spiritual revelry of laughter and high spirits, for a transcendental height of the loftiest nonsense and Aristophanic mockery of the world. Perhaps this is the very place where we’ll still discover the realm of our own inventiveness, that realm where we too can still be original as some sort of satirists of world history and God’s clowns — perhaps when nothing else today has a future, perhaps it’s our laughter that still has one.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Seriously.
john roberts says
Nietzsche has long been my favorite philosopher, though he is perhaps the most misunderstood one in all of history. His greatest problem was that he had no intellectual peer in his lifetime. Many explanations have been sought for his late-life insanity: syphilitic paresis being the most common. I think the poor bastard just went crazy from loneliness.
Saddle Tramp says
Yes John Roberts…
I would agree as to a favorite for all kinds of reasons.
As to the other I say by whatever means necessary to arrive beyond this bifurcated planet of good and evil. The final blow was perhaps signified at Turin either by the factual or fabled flogging. His empathy was too overwhelming to live with it seems. All else is conjecture at this time. Fortunate his work still remains behind.
Nietzsche is not dead…
Lane Batot says
The great story above about Jesuit scarface Flynn conjures up memories I have of a petty tyrant school teacher I had to deal with growing up. I was but a Sixth Grader, but already a veteran of numerous guerrilla conflicts in my Woodland home life, and steeped in the tales of Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Little Wolf, Dragging Canoe, Osceola, various outlaw wolves and grizzlies, and numerous other childhood heroes. Such influences were probably why I DID NOT take tyranny, bullying, or unfair treatment passively, and when this pompous arse of a poor excuse for a “Teacher”(who was also a Coach AND the Vice Principal) decided to persecute my runty little arse(I was ALWAYS the smallest kid in class, until puberty changed things considerably a few years later), he quickly found out he had made a VERY BIG MISTAKE! This was back in the DAYS of “corporal punishment”, so I got that runty arse whooped a LOT(I came up with a solution for THAT, too, that worked very effectively–numerous pairs of underwear over some buttock shaped cardboard pieces!), but such “discipline” was like throwing accelerant on an already blazing fire. Turns out, whipping my behind was about ALL he could do, as he sure didn’t want parents to find out exactly what all he was perpetrating(I was not his only victim–basically the whole class was!), and when that had ZERO effect on my guerrilla retaliations, he was in a bit of a pickle–which I fully realized, and took outrageous advantage of! He made numerous bluff threats, too, but they were just laying down the gauntlet to my sense of outrage–he had whacked ME with a yardstick, too, which promptly disappeared and reappeared in tiny, tiny pieces, on his desk! I could write a BOOK about that last year of Elementary School, and how I made such a JERK that liked to lord it over a bunch of normally cowering schoolkids, reevaluate the wicked ingenuity of juvenile primates. I’m sure that fellow breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when I “graduated”, but karma has it’s way, and the following year saw major “bussing” to integrate schools racially, and this included teachers getting reassigned, and I heard(and later witnessed) this JERK’S reassignment in an inner city school(my school was distinctly rural) where my retaliations probably were kindly in comparison to what he then had to deal with! The last time I saw this jerk, he was a broken man. Justice–and I never felt a micro-atom of sympathy for this turd(one of the ONLY “Bad” teachers I had to deal with growing up, I willl add. I LOVED most of my teachers…)
Greg says
Concurrent to the opening quote by Che reference the missiles — written by his first wife, Hilda Gadea, in her book “My Life with Che”.
“It is another part of history now — those days when US spy planes discovered the existence of the missile sites in Cuba. Fully justified, Cuba had petitioned the Soviet Union for them, to defend herself against a possible attack by the Yankees, an imminent danger that still hasn’t passed…
When Che returned home after the 3‑day Bay of Pigs battles -
“He [Che] mentioned that he had been in one of the most dangerous spots. “As always,” I responded. I was sure without being told that he had probably been stationed as one of the missile sites.”
There should be no doubt as to the authenticity of Che’s quote about using the Soviet supplied missiles — nor his Intent had they been used to have been where the buttons would have been pushed.
Ugly Hombre says
Excellent thanks for this, people need to know the facts about murderous SOAB Dead Che. And the Castro bastards
The Cubans had a esp nasty role in the torture and interrogation of our POW’s in Vietnam, and a possible role in the vetting of them for transfer to Havana or Moscow for technical collection.
http://www.autentico.org/oa09872.php
https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y99/nov99/05e10.htm
I had a boss a Vietnam fighter pilot who was imprisoned with some of the men tortured in the north by Cuban intel.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/cuban_war_crimes_in_vietnam.html
Wearing a Dead Che Tee shirt is about the same as wearing a dead bastard SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich shirt.
Thanks for those links.
Ugly Hombre says
De Nada Amigo,
http://northwestvets.com/spurs/benge.htm
Here is some more- seems the facts were cloaked about DGI Cubans in Vn. And the POW’s were told to shut up about it. A GD nasty situation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direcci%C3%B3n_de_Inteligencia
I had another boss in the 70’s in the RP, a AF E9 Cubano who’ had family members purged, tortured and murdered by the Castros and their henchman Che. If he had seen a joker wearing a Dead Che shirt- there would have been a funeral pretty sure.
I also had a client circa 2007 a AF SF NCO who had as a child been left behind when Cuba was “liberated”. He was sent to a childrens re-education camp and starved. He told me they were taken to a old church auditorium with a table in the front and told to get down on their knees close their eyes and pray to Jesus for food on the table.
“Ok open your eyes bastardos! do you see any food?” No! there is no god!”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article118282148.html
He said they then marched them to another room with a big painting of Lenin and gave them some slim rations. Just below starvation level.
His family managed to bribe some Cadres later- and finally got him out in his early teens.
People need to know the facts about Communist Cuba.
Keep punching..