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Originally Posted by Mutt
He was the ultimate revolutionary - I hadn't read these things about him. I will read more, and decide for myself what's likely to be true and consider the context of the times and who the sources are. The hatred of America is totally understandable, being anti-gay if true in the 1950's, no surprise there, the anti-long hair musician thing sounds odd since he had long hair and a scruffy beard himself.
To call him gutless is ridiculous though, from what I've read he was a brilliant guerilla strategist and fighter.
Cuba was a just revolution, it was what the people wanted. When Kennedy sent the CIA to recruit Cubans to lay the groundwork for the Bay of Pigs invasion guess what happened - Howard Hunt said he couldn't find anybody, everybody he talked to was happy with Castro. In any violent revolution atrocities and purges happen. I'm not condoning any of that.
The lesson to be learned is colonialism/imperialism is wrong and revolution is inevitable.
I'm not pro dictatorships and communism, but when the people of a country i.e. Cuba, Vietnam choose them over what they had before - that should tell you something. You're a right wing zealot pretty much. What was the US offering the people of Cuba as an alternative to Castro/Guevara? Batista.
I understand and would feel the same way as Dead Fidel does - his family paid the worst price. It wouldn't have happened if not for this:
“I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country's policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear. ”
— U.S. President John F. Kennedy, to Jean Daniel, October 24, 1963
You reap what you sow. And the lesson never seems to get learned.
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Fair answer, but understand, I'm making NO arguments in favor of colonialism, and I'm a firm believer in the rights of people to throw off the rule of unwanted governance. You say I"m a "right-wing zealot", but what I am is a libertarian, and the first thing I believe in is freedom from big government, including freedom from right-winger government! It would be more correct to say that I'm "anti-statists".
In any case, I'm talking here about the man himself, and how he treated his fellow cubans, and his personal actions, as well as the cult of mis information about his activities and "talents". The US didn't "reap" anything. He didn't hurt the US at all, it made no difference to the Americans in any material way. He DID make a huge difference in the lives and the families of thousands of cubans.
You can just try google "crimes of che guevara", and then try to wade through layers of internet bullcrap....
....but if you truly interested, and want some REALLY well researched and referenced information, about a man that you admire so deeply, I would suggest
"Exposing the Real Che Guevara", by Humberto Fontova.
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