I finally finished reading Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson. Between other reading obligations (text books), its 754 page length, and my nasty habit of starting other books before I finish the last one I started I think it has been about two years since I started reading this book. The book is a biography of Ernesto Guevara, a revolutionary from Argentina who helped Fidel Castro take over Cuba. The biography is fast paced, but I believe it manages to stay within the facts. This often requires presenting differing stories from multiple witnesses to the events of Che's life, as many of the facts are clouded by legend. After successfully setting up a socialist government in Cuba, Fidel and Che turned their sights on other areas. Che attempted to bring his guerilla revolution to Argentina, the Congo, and finally Bolivia. Each of these missions was unsuccessful, but had things gone differently the world would be a very different place today. For example, in Bolivia if Che's radio transmitter hadn't broken and he had maintained communication with Cuba he could have arranged for additional guerillas and supplies. If Che had been successful in Bolivia he would have likely turned his attention back to his homeland of Argentina. With a more established base of socialism in South America the U.S.S.R. may have had a better chance of surviving.

Che was certainly a radical. His ultimate goal was to spread socialism throughout the world and end what he considered U.S. imperialism, even saying that the Russians should have used the missiles that created the Cuban missile crisis. As radical, and sometimes vicious, as he was his determination and sacrifice for an ideal is to be admired.

Reportedly his last words, to the Bolivian soldier who volunteered to execute him, were: "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man."

Now onto one of my other half-finished books, The Cathedral & the Bazaar.