He spent six months in the African Congo involved in a total debacle, a mess of classic proportions. The Congolese rebel soldiers were undisciplined and unmotivated. They got drunk and visited whorehouses, and most of them had venereal diseases. Che, a doctor, spent time giving them penicillin shots.
Che couldn't speak the native language, so he talked to the officers in French. The soldiers blamed invisible spirits and other people for their own failures and refused to train or learn weapons.
When Che criticized the soldiers, they laughed hilariously. The one disciplined Congolese officer he could rely on drowned under suspicious circumstances, perhaps killed by his own men.
Che spent time in Prague and Paris, Moscow and Beijing. He burned up a lot of jet fuel.
Throughout his life, he neglected his own family, putting his epic dreams of international Communist revolution ahead of his own parents, his two consecutive wives and his five children.
The most horrific event occurred the last time he saw his wife Aleida and their four children in Cuba. He had snuck into the country in disguise, under the name Ramon:
His wife knew who he was, but his children did not. He pretended he was "Uncle Ramon" and played with his kids in disguise. He didn't want anyone to find out where he was. He knew the children couldn't keep the secret.
That seems incredibly sad. In my opinion, he was playing games with people's lives, including his own and that of his family. He was more interested in his grandiose plans, and in sending men off on dubious missions, where many died.
As he predicted, after his death the two littlest kids had no memory of him whatever. I think that is a misplaced value. What a horrible way to treat your kids. I have to say, I am not a fan. I don't have a lot of respect for a man who put his family last.
-- Roger
© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle
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