Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T11:21:23.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Che Guevara on Guerrilla Warfare: Doctrine, Practice and Evaluation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

José A. Moreno
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh

Extract

Most theories of revolution seem to agree that certain preconditions must be met if a revolutionary situation is to arise. The peculiar contribution of Ernesto Che Guevara to understanding revolutions is that according to him such preconditions can be created [1: 4]. Few men in the world today would be better qualified than Guevara to sustain such theory with empirical evidence from his own participation in revolutions. After his experience in Guatemala, Cuba, the Congo and, perhaps, other parts of the world, Guevara was considered, by friends and enemies alike, as one of the world's top-ranking guerrilla fighters of the twentieth century. By the time he started a new daring experiment in Bolivia he was reckoned as one of the most articulate theorists in the field. The death of Guevara in the mountains of Bolivia on October 9,1967, brought commotion and mixed feelings to his enemies and admirers the world over. His enemies were exultant, first because the dreaded Guevara was dead, and second because his death was ‘clear evidence’ that his theories were wrong. His admirers were sad because he was dead, but were also elated because the puzzle of his disappearance had been unraveled and because his death at the hands of Bolivian rangers trained by a U.S. military mission, far from being ‘evidence’ that his theories were wrong, was ‘evidence’ that they were right.

Type
Revolution
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Ché Guevara on Guerrilla Warfare, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, 1966.Google Scholar
2.‘Guerra de Guerrillas: Un Metodo’, Cuba Socialista, Septiembre de 1963 (Ano III, No. 25), 117.Google Scholar
3.‘Cuba: Exceptional Case or Vanguard in the Struggle against Colonialism’, Verde Olivo, April 9, 1961.Google Scholar
4.‘Notes for the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution’, Verde Olivo, October 8, 1960.Google Scholar
5.Relates de la Guerra Revolutionaria, Buenos Aires: Editora, Nueve 64, 1965.Google Scholar
6.Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1968.Google Scholar
7.El Diario del Che en Bolivia, Mexico City: Siglo XXI Editores, S.A., 1968.Google Scholar
8.The Complete Bolivian Diaries of Che Guevara and Other Captured Documents, edited by James, Daniel, New York: Stern and Day Pub., 1968.Google Scholar
9.Che Guevara Speaks: Selected Speeches and Writings, edited by Lavan, George, New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1968.Google Scholar