Who Was Chè Guevara?

How many times have you seen someone wearing a Chè Guevara T-shirt?  Just the other day, I ran into a person with such a T-shirt.  I could not help but think that the person had no idea who Chè Guevara was or what he stood for.  I get a feeling that people who wear such T-shirts, just think that the Chè icon is just another "cool" clothing option that makes them fit in with the crowd.

Let's cut to the chase.  Who was Chè?  Was he a hero, a charismatic figure, a villain or a brutal thug?  If you look into the history of this person you will find that he was a cold blooded murderer, a communist, a henchman of Fidel Castro and a criminal of the worst kind.  A few facts:

• He was born Ernesto Lynch; his parents were Spanish and Irish.  He later changed his name to fit his ambition as a communist revolutionary. After graduating from medical school in 1953 he decided that what he really wanted to do was  fight in communist rebellions anywhere he could find one,

• After a failed attempt to stir up trouble in Guatemala, he fled to Mexico where he met Fidel Castro, who was on ice there waiting to return to Cuba and take over from the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in the Cuban communist revolution of 1959.  While fighting with Castro in Cuba Chè hones his killing instinct and discovers that he loves killing. In an article by David W. Thornton published by Yahoo, he is described like this: "Che' becomes Castro's chief lieutenant and then the comandante of one of the largest guerilla bands. He is ruthless, frequently executing suspected traitors quickly and dispassionately. 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."
• Thornton further describes the extent of his bloodthirsty mania this way: "He is placed in charge of La Cabana prison, where the majority of the executions take place. According to the Black Book of Communism, by the mid-1960s, 14,000 Cubans have been executed without fair trials. 500,000 Cubans were incarcerated in labor camps. At one point, in 1961, one of every 19 Cubans was a political prisoner. Che' plays a major role in developing Castro's penal system and defends the executions publicly in 1964 after he had ceased to command the prison. He even dismisses his victims as "all CIA agents" before his death in 1967."

This is just a short list of his many attributes.  There is much more.  So, next time you see someone wearing a Chè T-shirt, ask him or her if he/she knows who that man on his/her T-shirt was.

The Katyn Forrest Massacre by the Soviets - Deja Vù All Over Again

This morning, at my regular morning coffee in Downtown Manhattan Beach I was discussing the downing of the Malaysian Airliner by Russian thugs in eastern Ukraine with a casual friend.  I expressed to my friend that it was perfectly clear to me that Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, was responsible.  In the course of our conversation I mentioned to him some historical bad behavior by the Russians, such as the Katyn Forest Massacre of 1940.   Most people have no idea what this was.  Click here for a summary of what happened in the Katyn Forest.

In 1939 the Russians invaded Poland.  In September 1939 the Nazis invaded Poland too.  The Nazis and the Soviets agreed to divide Poland between themselves.  Sometime between 1939 and 1941   The Russians proceded to arrest a large number of Polish soldiers and their officers.  In a bizarre decision, the Soviets decided that they would murder all of their Polish prisoners; a sort of ethnic cleansing.  About 22,000 Polish soldiers, officers, and Polish intellectuals were brutally massacred and buried in the Katyn Forest.  The Nazis discovered the mass graves in 1943.  The Russians denied it and blamed the Nazis.  The Russians finally confessed in 1990, fifty years later, that they were responsible.  Does anything sound familiar with the current Ukrainian situation?  Did the Russians admit to shooting down the Malaysian airliner?  Again, my motto:  Those who fail to learn from history will be condemned to repeat it.  Another short summary of the Katyn Forest massacre is in this link.  Click here to read it.