Was Che Guevara a "good" guy? I dont really understand what he did after reading wikipedia stuff?

Question

I know he was linked with Castro but isnt Castro "bad"?

Answer 1

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was the symbol of revolution for the youth movement during the sixties and early seventies. With the Viet Nam War ready to tear the country apart, we had revolutionaries, hippies and the establishment; the establishment made him a house hold word by expressing their hatred and fear while the rest selected him as the icon for the unrest, communism and revolution.

After the over throw of the Batista government (January 1959) Castro announced he was a communist and that began the invisible war with American. We have had a 47 year blockade of Cuba. This should show the world that such actions are worthless, but it is an easy way to look like you are doing something. We know it only hurts the old, sick and children but the many thousands of Cuban exiles insist we continue the blockade.

Castro seemed glad or even obliged to accept aid from the Soviet Union while Che was more a Maoist and followed the Chinese ideas. It goes with out saying this upset the Russians and Castro.

Che had come to view the Northern Hemisphere, led by the U.S. in the West and the Soviet Union in the East, as the exploiter of the Southern Hemisphere. He strongly supported Communist North Vietnam in the Vietnam War, and urged the peoples of other developing countries to take up arms and create "many Vietnams" If the Soviets and Castro were not upset before they certainly were after hearing this statement.

In 1965, Guevara made public his disappointments in Algiers and described the Kremlin as "an accomplice of imperialism". Guevara's dismissal from the ministry followed immediately on his return from Algiers. 1966. Soon afterwards Che dropped out of sight. He visited several sites but showed up in Bolivia. Castro revealed an undated letter purportedly written to him by Guevara some months earlier in which Guevara reaffirmed his enduring solidarity with the Cuban Revolution but declared his intention to leave Cuba to fight abroad for the cause of the revolution. He explained, "Other nations of the world summon my modest efforts”, and that he had therefore decided to go and fight as a guerrilla "on new battlefields". In the letter Guevara announced his resignation from all his positions in the government, in the party, and in the Army, and renounced his Cuban citizenship, which had been granted to him in 1959 in recognition of his efforts on behalf of the revolution

His disappearance was variously attributed to the relative failure of the industrialization scheme he had advocated while minister of industry, to pressure exerted on Castro by Soviet officials disapproving of Guevara's pro-Chinese Communist bent as the Sino-Soviet split grew more pronounced, and to serious differences between Guevara and the Cuban leadership regarding Cuba's economic development and ideological line. Others suggested that Castro had grown increasingly wary of Guevara's popularity and considered him a potential threat. Castro's critics sometimes say his explanations for Guevara's disappearance have always been suspect, and many found it surprising that Guevara never announced his intentions publicly, but only through an undated and uncharacteristically obsequious letter to Castro.
In 1966, Guevara turned up incognito in Bolivia where he trained and led a guerrilla war in the Santa Cruz region. In his manual Guerrilla Warfare, Guevara had stressed that the guerrilla fighter needs full help from the people of the area, it is an indispensable condition, but Guevara failed to win the support of the peasants and his group was surrounded near Vallegrande by American-trained Bolivian troops. "The decisive moment in a man's life is when he decides to confront death," Guevara once said. "If he confronts it, he will be a hero whether he succeeds or not. He can be a good or a bad politician, but if he does not confront death he will never be more than a politician." After Guevara was captured, Captain Gary Prado Salmón put a security around him to be sure that nothing happened. Guevara told him, "don't worry, captain, don't worry. This is the end. It's finished." (from the document film 'Red Chapters,' 1999) .Guevara was shot in a schoolhouse in La Higuera on October 9, 1967, by Warrant Officer Mario Terán of the Bolivian Rangers at the request of Colonel Zenteno. Terán was half-drunk, celebrating his birthday. Guevara's last words were: "Shoot, coward you are only going to kill a man." In order to make a positive fingerprint comparison with records in Argentina, Guevara's hand were sawed off and put into a flask of formaldehyde. They were later returned to Cuba. Guevara's corpse was buried in a ditch at the end of the runway site of Vallegrande's new airport. "Che considered himself a soldier of this revolution, with absolutely no concern about surviving it," said Fidel Castro later in Che: A Memoir.

In 1997, the body of Che was recovered in Bolivia after Jon Lee Anderson (who was working on Guevara's biography) received information on its whereabouts. The remains were then flown back to Cuba.

Che Guevara has become a cultural symbol for people all over world. Che is an icon for anyone who stands up against oppression of any form. Today, it has become cool to own a part of Che. It could be in the form of a T-shirt, cap, football or bumper car sticker. Not many people understand or even attempt to understand what he stood for but they know that being part of the Che cult is the thing to do

You might enjoy and help you understand better if watch “Motorcycle Diary” and “Che”.

God Bless You and Our Southern People.

Answer 2

Che was a romantic, he was useless as a military commander and had no idea of what was happening in the real world after the Cuban Revolution. Castro was not all bad, in fact he has done quite a lot of good in Cuba itself, however he is the most boring leader on the planet, anyone who can witter on for six or seven hours at a go about the politics of Cuba post revolution is a very dull person. Che, not even a Cuban, was a dreamer and idealist.
His adoption as a symbol of revolution by Students in the 60's was a serious HIPPY error.

Answer 3

Who told you all that Che was a communist? Just because these days merchants sell his face on red shirts to make money and some idiot people who think they are communist mention him all the time by wearing his red shirt, doesnt mean he is a communist. He was born in Argentina and went to help Castro in Cuba for his own reasons.
Also who can say what is right and wrong, good or bad? Many leaders and many countries make good and bad decisions in different issues. Also good or bad is subjective. Take Bush Jr for example. More than 50% of the americans think he is taking the right decisions in both foreign policy and interior and the rest of the world thinks he is a complete idiot!

Answer 4

Good question. I used to pride myself on being very informed and in the current about every issue. I've found that I've backed off quite a bit more and feel a more happy person because of it. New York Times Week in Review tells me what I need to know. I take a daily glance at headlines, maybe skim the article but find that nothing really changes when you get down to it. Also, due to the area I live in at this time I am unable to watch television and the pricing is outrageous for cable. However, I have a feeling if I was able to watch it then I'd at least hear what the major stories are. Other than that, it's paper and online

Answer 5

Che was a very charismatic and handsome dude. I think that he was also a medical school graduate. Besides being a revolutionary and close friend of Fidel Castro he was also a notorious lover ... bedding mucho senorittas and senoras.

Some people say that his amigo, Fidel, put him on " The Exporting Revolution" South American tour in order to lessen Che's popularity in Cuba and remove him as a threat to his dictatorship. Whether that is true or not, Che was eliminated as a potential threat to Fidel when he was killed in Boliva by anti-communist government troops.

Che's legend has grown to mythical proportions after his death. I wonder if his surviving family make even a single peso from the marketing of his image on shirts, posters and caps.

Answer 6

You view Castro as 'bad' becasue your government tells you to, rather than find out facts for yourself. The US govmt hates Cuba and Castro becase Cuba is a communist country that works quite well, and it is SO CLOSE to USA it is funny!!

Che Guevara was considered a freedom fighter/revolutionary in his time by many people, however if he lived today, he would be considered a terrorist and arrested/tortured. He was a communist, which in fact some people (lots of people) support and happily live by. USA government hates communism becasue it doesn't allow the government to get disgustingly rich. Che Guevara saw the povery so many people lived in, and the rich lavish lifestyles these ppople's governments lived by (oh, that happens in USA too, doesn't it) and he wanted to do something about it. So he fought for communism as theoretically, it gives EVERYONE the same chances, wealth etc. He worked with Fidel Castro in Cuba's revolution and became part of the government, writing many books and articles on the subject.

He has become an icon of socialist revolutionary movements, whch aim to make life better for everyone, not just the rich richer.

US citizens should look up the definition of 'terrorism'. One man's terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. Bush goes on about freedom for USA, howeve he's going about killing lots of poeple in Iraq, that makes him a terrorist by definition, particularly to the Iraqis. Look at the way your own country is run - wouldn't you rather see good education and access to health services for EVERYONE, instead of seeing your government line their own pockets with blood and oil money?

Answer 7

It's hard to define "good" sometimes. He certainly did something few people could. After living among poverty-stricken people, he thought that the problems of poverty and inequality could be solved by socialism, so he led a revolution. His intentions were certainly good, but was an armed revolution the best way to go about his aims?

Answer 8

He was a commie who tried to start an uprising in Bolivia to turn the government there into a communist one. A CIA led team wiped him and his comrades out. That shows you how much freedom we have in the west - he is an inspiration to commies - agitators - anarchists and leftwingers the world over. His picture represents rebellion against the system. He was a bad guy - if his kind prevailed we would never have anything like yahoo answers and that is just one basic point made.

Answer 9

The fact is he didn't do much. He was a rubbish finance minister before going of round south America getting into as many revolutions as possible.

His main achievement was in the poster business where he made quite a hit with teenage wannabee revolutionary boys and girls....His branching out into t-shirts did him no harm either!

Answer 10

Did he read wikipedia, crumbs I did not think that the internet existed in those days.

I thought he was a revolutionally not a visonally !!!