CHE: THE WARRIOR

On Pages 124-126 of Jon Lee Anderson's biography of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, we see the first mentions of violence in Che's diaries and notebooks.

The future Che had a vision of himself as a revolutionary warrior. The year was 1954, and Che was 25 years old.

It's sad, I think. This was a time when change was sweeping through Latin America, and the most reasonable country was Costa Rica, where they had disbanded the army, nationalized the banks, I believe, and maintained political tolerance and moderation. They had what amounted to a peaceful revolution, without bloodshed.

It's too bad that Che wasn't attracted to Costa Rica as a model for reform.

But he wasn't. He was already talking about slitting throats and annihilating capitalist "octopuses."

I find that hard to identify with and even harder to admire.

I am not attracted to violence. Apparently Che was. He seems to have admired Stalin and Lenin. I don't.

But I still have not decided whether he was a good guy or a bad guy.

We'll see. Right now he doesn't look so good.

-- Roger

© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle