Che Guevara - Historum

**Emilio Primo** · March 29th, 2010, 03:54 AM

I have a become quite fascinated by the Argentinean, I've been reading quite a lot on him, I even watched the movie Che staring Benicio Del Toro which by the way was excellent.

Che was a Revolutionary in it's purest form, and wanted to spread the "Revolution" to every corner of the Earth to where he thought there was injustices, even taking the "revolution" as far as the Congo. He no doubt left his mark on history, and his legacy has carried down to this day where is looked at for the most part as a hero, although not by the U.S. which is in no doubt to his being a Marxist and his ties with Cuba and Castro.

Che_Guevara

**beorna** · March 29th, 2010, 04:21 AM

I have a t-shirt with his picture on. My wife and especially my parents-in-law hate it.

**Cicero** · March 29th, 2010, 05:00 AM

I read one book on him in the past.
A favortie movie ( and musical) of mine, Evita, has a character that is sort of loosely based on him.. even called Che ... as Evita's conscience, the narrator, and the Greek Chorus.

Quote:

Waltz for Eva and Ché". Evita makes a reference to Guevara's future role in Castro's Cuba: "So go, if you're able/To somewhere unstable/And stay there/Whip up your hate/In some tottering state/But not here, dear/Is that clear, dear?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evita_(musical)

**pikeshot1600** · March 29th, 2010, 05:37 AM

Che is a dead Red like all the other pure Revolutionaries. Bela Kun; Zinoviev; Trotsky. None of these people have had any lasting effect on anything.

alsoubani · March 29th, 2010, 06:00 AM

there is a good movie about Che (before he became involved in politics)
it is called the Motorcycle Diaries, excellent movie
i know he was a great guy before his involvement in politics, but after that i am not sure because in some books he is this great man and in others he is the devil.

**Emilio Primo** · March 29th, 2010, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alsoubani

there is a good movie about Che (before he became involved in politics)
it is called the Motorcycle Diaries, excellent movie
i know he was a great guy before his involvement in politics, but after that i am not sure because in some books he is this great man and in others he is the devil.

Well what he is considered, either good or bad, depends on your political ideology.

**DIVUS IVLIVS** · March 30th, 2010, 12:34 AM

One should in my opinion note that there is much to be admired about his ability, his character, and certain parts of his aims, or at least the motivations behind them.

Less certain is what he actually achieved. It has to be admitted even by his admirers that he was something of a failure as an administrator, and a good part of his legacy is not exactly what one would call positive.

He is fascinating though, that is undeniable.

I wouldn't be so quick to say that he doesn't have his supporters in the US. There are just as many people in America who love as who loathe. Both of these are likely outnumbered however by those to whom he is just "that dude on the t-shirt".

**pikeshot1600** · March 30th, 2010, 05:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DIVUS IVLIVS

One should in my opinion note that there is much to be admired about his ability, his character, and certain parts of his aims, or at least the motivations behind them.

Less certain is what he actually achieved. It has to be admitted even by his admirers that he was something of a failure as an administrator, and a good part of his legacy is not exactly what one would call positive.

He is fascinating though, that is undeniable.

I wouldn't be so quick to say that he doesn't have his supporters in the US. There are just as many people in America who love as who loathe. Both of these are likely outnumbered however by those to whom he is just "that dude on the t-shirt".

Marxist revolution, and moreso it's Bolshevik abberation, are both becoming fading memories. Testimony to their irrelevance is that the life span of the last leader of it's only valid polity, M. Gorbachev, has already outlived the life span of the USSR.

Some of the other pure revolutionaries are already long forgotten or at least unfamiliar. Che is truly a dude on a t-shirt.

**Pedro** · March 30th, 2010, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emilio Primo

Well what he is considered, either good or bad, depends on your political ideology.

or your moral sense.

Grimmlok · March 30th, 2010, 05:58 AM

Wasn't he a blood-thirsty butcher of thousands of innocents?

Quote:

In a 1957 letter to his first wife (he remarried to a fellow guerilla in 1959), Che writes, "I'm here in Cuba's hills, alive and thirsting for blood." In a letter to his father, he writes, "I really like killing." Che's instructions to a subordinate are simple: "If in doubt, kill him."