# Who was Che Guevara? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2001, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331 "2001-05-13T19:11:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ressl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Ressl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ressl)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/1 "2001-05-13T19:11:32Z")
What did he do? Why was his impact so large? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/2 "2001-05-13T19:19:52Z")
Come on mate…it’s not that hard a question: [2,770 hits on Google for ‘ **Che Guevara** ’ and ‘ **impact** ’](http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Che+Guevara%22+impact&hl=en&meta=) ---
**Author:** ![Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrison_s_Lament)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/3 "2001-05-13T19:34:53Z")
He’s the guy on my T-Shirt :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/4 "2001-05-13T19:48:31Z")
He’s the bloke they named Che Stadium for. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/5 "2001-05-13T20:24:31Z")
He was Castro’s right hand man. Che was sort of Trotsky, to Castro’s Lenin. But later, Castro got sick of him, and sent Che to Argentina, where he (Che) was assassinated. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/6 "2001-05-13T23:04:06Z")
[Che : The Photobiography of Che Guevara](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1560251875/o/qid=989795115/sr=2-2/107-4337527-2867717) by Christophe Loviny is a good recent book about him. He was Argentinian… I don’t know that Castro “sent” him there. Interesting guy. [Edited by JillGat on 05-13-2001 at 06:06 PM] ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/7 "2001-05-13T23:19:30Z")
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/companero.htm](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/companero.htm) Companero The Life and Death of Che Guevara By Jorge G. Castaneda Chapter One: Childhood, Youth, and Asthma in Argentina ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/8 "2001-05-13T23:24:09Z")
A **very** good recent book about him is [_Che Guevara : A Revolutionary Life_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802135587/o/qid=989795576/sr=2-1/107-8126465-1449302), by Jon Lee Anderson. Briefly: Che Guevara was an argentinean medical student who became enamoured of the communist ideal, and after meeting the Castro brothers (Fidel and Raul) in Mexico, joined them in their guerilla war in Cuba. After the defeat of the Batista regime, he became an important figure in the Cuban government, spent two years in the Congo training revolutionary soldiers, and eventually went to Bolivia to lead a guerilla group, was captured and shot in 1967. Why has he become an iconic figure? I think it’s a combination of several things: [ul] [li]He was well-educated, intelligent, eloquent and handsome.[/li][li]He abandoned a life of privilege to dedicate his life to a cause.[/li][li]He joined and had an important part in a successful armed insurrection, helping overthrow a corrupt and brutal regime.[/li][li]He died as a relatively young man, in circumstances that would justify his followers claiming him as a martyr (he was summarily executed.)[/ul][/li] All in all, his life history makes him a romantic and idealistic figure. After reading Jon Lee Anderson’s book, however, I was surprised to read how ferocious and pitiless Che Guevara was in wartime circumstances. Like any historical figure, he definitely had a dark side. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/9 "2001-05-14T01:25:16Z")
Ressl, Welcome to the board. If you search you will find earlier threads. That is the first thing to do before you post a question. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-che-guevara/65331/10 "2001-05-14T02:31:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \* > \*\* > > Why has he become an iconic figure? I think it’s a combination of several things: > [ul] > [li]He was well-educated, intelligent, eloquent and handsome.[/li][li]He abandoned a life of privilege to dedicate his life to a cause.[/li][li]He joined and had an important part in a successful armed insurrection, helping overthrow a corrupt and brutal regime.[/li][li]He died as a relatively young man, in circumstances that would justify his followers claiming him as a martyr (he was summarily executed.)[/ul][/li] > \*\* And he left the relative comfort of being a high-rank Party apparatchik in a country that was one of the darlings of the worldwide left at the time, in order to keep on doing actual on-the-field revolution. On the one hand this preserved the image of Che as the committed True Believer who wanted revolution to reach the whole world NOW.(The fact that he failed badly in both his post-Cuba revolutions being overlooked…) OTOH, it fueled speculation that Fidel was not entirely unhappy to have Che’s butt be the one that was on the line of fire, far from Havana – thus serving as a foil to Castro in a nice little parable on the corruption of power. \*\* > [@](#): > > All in all, his life history makes him a romantic and idealistic figure. After reading Jon Lee Anderson’s book, however, I was surprised to read how ferocious and pitiless Che Guevara was in wartime circumstances. > \*\* Immediately after the revolution’s victory, he also showed that dark side: he was a key figure in the purges and executions of real and alleged former-regime supporters; and of those within the revolutionary movement itself when Fidel “came out” as a communist.