Asad Ismi: review of "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life"

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life By Jon Lee Anderson (Book Review)

Anderson's biography is comprehensive, but less than definitive. A master at reconstruction, Anderson presents each stage in Che's life in meticulous detail. There is Che the asthmatic youngster, developing his legendary willpower by fighting the affliction; Che the idealist student, who doesn't quite fit into Argentine bourgeois society; Che the continental traveller radicalized by the overthrow of the Arbenz government in Guatemala and finally Che the implacable revolutionary, playing a leading role in the Cuban Revolution and going on to attempt the liberation of the rest of the Third World.

At each of these stages, Anderson provides valuable personal details that give us a more complete picture of Che's development. What emerges is the portrait of an incredibly idealistic and absolutely principled man, whose actions were fanatically consistent with his beliefs. Even as Minister of Industries and head of the Central Bank in Cuba, Che insisted on drawing only his military salary (as major) of $250 a month, an amount not even enough to meet the basic expenses of his family. Diplomats actually offered his wife food to take home after embassy functions. Che set high standards of performance for his close associates, but also did the same for himself, and those who met his criteria were rewarded with his trust. These men and women were ready to leave their jobs and families to follow him anywhere in the world; for them, he was the revolution.

Where Anderson fails is in dealing with the broader historical context that drove Che to armed struggle. Amidst the attention to personal detail, Anderson misses the glaringly obvious fact that Che's radicalism was a reaction to long-standing U.S. domination of Latin America. In this sense, Che was not the sole "new socialist man" that Anderson makes him out to be but, rather, part of Latin America's anti-U.S. guerrilla tradition, which included Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua, Camilo Torres in Colombia and Turcios Lima in Guatemala, among others. Similarly, we do not learn much about U.S. covert actions against Cuba that were carried out by the Kennedy administration under the code name "Operation Mongoose." These included sabotage, paramilitary raids, efforts to disrupt Cuba's economy and eight attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro (as admitted by the CIA Castro claims there were fifteen). As Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, put it, "We were running a damn Murder Incorporated in the Caribbean." Nor do we find much information on the strong U.S. backing for Mobutu, whom Che went to fight against in the Congo, or on U.S. control over Bolivia (Che's final battleground) whose Interior Minister in 1967 was a CIA agent.

To understand Che or almost any other radical Third World leader, it is crucial to impart how the U.S. appears to them and to many people in the South: as a malevolent, dangerous and ubiquitous giant intent on violently crushing national independence. Instead, Anderson's United States is a distant power that merely reacts to the Cuban Revolution. In spite of such a significant fault, Anderson's book is well worth reading, especially for his account of the brilliant Sierra Maestra campaign and as the most extensive personal biography of a remarkable man.

Published in:

Canadian Dimension, November/December 1997

The Atkinsonian, October 1997


	BECOMING THE REVOLUTION

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life By Jon Lee Anderson (Book Review) Anderson's biography is comprehensive, but less than definitive. A master at reconstruction, Anderson presents each stage in Che's life in meticulous detail. There is Che the asthmatic youngster, developing his legendary willpower by fighting the affliction; Che the idealist student, who doesn't quite fit into Argentine bourgeois society; Che the continental traveller radicalized by the overthrow of the Arbenz government in Guatemala and finally Che the implacable revolutionary, playing a leading role in the Cuban Revolution and going on to attempt the liberation of the rest of the Third World. At each of these stages, Anderson provides valuable personal details that give us a more complete picture of Che's development. What emerges is the portrait of an incredibly idealistic and absolutely principled man, whose actions were fanatically consistent with his beliefs. Even as Minister of Industries and head of the Central Bank in Cuba, Che insisted on drawing only his military salary (as major) of $250 a month, an amount not even enough to meet the basic expenses of his family. Diplomats actually offered his wife food to take home after embassy functions. Che set high standards of performance for his close associates, but also did the same for himself, and those who met his criteria were rewarded with his trust. These men and women were ready to leave their jobs and families to follow him anywhere in the world; for them, he was the revolution. Where Anderson fails is in dealing with the broader historical context that drove Che to armed struggle. Amidst the attention to personal detail, Anderson misses the glaringly obvious fact that Che's radicalism was a reaction to long-standing U.S. domination of Latin America. In this sense, Che was not the sole "new socialist man" that Anderson makes him out to be but, rather, part of Latin America's anti-U.S. guerrilla tradition, which included Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua, Camilo Torres in Colombia and Turcios Lima in Guatemala, among others. Similarly, we do not learn much about U.S. covert actions against Cuba that were carried out by the Kennedy administration under the code name "Operation Mongoose." These included sabotage, paramilitary raids, efforts to disrupt Cuba's economy and eight attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro (as admitted by the CIA Castro claims there were fifteen). As Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, put it, "We were running a damn Murder Incorporated in the Caribbean." Nor do we find much information on the strong U.S. backing for Mobutu, whom Che went to fight against in the Congo, or on U.S. control over Bolivia (Che's final battleground) whose Interior Minister in 1967 was a CIA agent. To understand Che or almost any other radical Third World leader, it is crucial to impart how the U.S. appears to them and to many people in the South: as a malevolent, dangerous and ubiquitous giant intent on violently crushing national independence. Instead, Anderson's United States is a distant power that merely reacts to the Cuban Revolution. In spite of such a significant fault, Anderson's book is well worth reading, especially for his account of the brilliant Sierra Maestra campaign and as the most extensive personal biography of a remarkable man. Published in: Canadian Dimension, November/December 1997 The Atkinsonian, October 1997

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