Vol. 77/No. 38      October 28, 2013

Below is an excerpt from “A Necessary Introduction,” written in June 1968 by Fidel Castro for The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara. It is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for October. The diary tells the story of the 1966-67 guerrilla campaign Guevara led in Bolivia to forge a continent-wide revolutionary movement of workers and peasants and open the road to socialist revolution in South America. Copyright © 1994 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

BY FIDEL CASTRO  
It was Che’s custom during his days as a guerrilla to carefully record his daily observations in a personal diary. During long marches over rugged and difficult terrain, in the midst of damp woods, when the lines of men, always hunched over from the weight of their packs, ammunition, and weapons, would stop for a moment to rest, or when the column would receive orders to halt and make camp at the end of an exhausting day’s march, one would see Che — as he was from the beginning affectionately nicknamed by the Cubans — take out a small notebook and, with his tiny and nearly illegible doctor’s handwriting, write his notes.

What he was able to save from these notes he later used in writing his magnificent historical narratives of the revolutionary war in Cuba — accounts full of revolutionary, educational, and human content.

This time, thanks to his invariable habit of jotting down the main events of each day, we have at our disposal detailed, rigorously exact, and priceless information on the heroic final months of his life in Bolivia.

These notes, not written for publication, served as a tool in the constant evaluation of events, situations, and men. They also served as an outlet for the expression of his keenly observant and analytic spirit, often laced with a sharp sense of humor. They are soberly written and form a coherent whole from beginning to end.

It should be kept in mind that they were written during rare moments of rest in the midst of a heroic and superhuman physical effort. Also to be remembered are his exhausting obligations as leader of a guerrilla detachment in the difficult first stages of a struggle of this nature, which unfolded under incredibly harsh material conditions. This reveals once more his habits of work and his will of steel. …

The Cuban revolution and its relation to the guerrilla movement are repeatedly referred to in the diary. Some may interpret our decision to publish it as an act of provocation that will give the enemies of the revolution — the U.S. imperialists and their allies, the Latin American oligarchs — ammunition for redoubling their efforts to blockade, isolate, and attack Cuba.

Those who judge the facts this way should remember that U.S. imperialism has never needed a pretext to carry out its crimes anywhere in the world, and that its efforts to crush the Cuban revolution began as soon as our country passed its first revolutionary law. This course stems from the obvious and well-known fact that imperialism is the policeman of world reaction, the systematic promoter of counterrevolution, and the protector of the most backward and inhuman social structures that remain in the world.

Cuba’s solidarity with the revolutionary movement may be the pretext, but it will never be the real cause of U.S. aggression. To refuse solidarity in order to avoid providing a pretext is a ridiculous, ostrich-like policy that has nothing to do with the internationalist character of the social revolutions of today. To refuse solidarity to the revolutionary movement not only does not avoid providing a pretext; it is in effect a show of solidarity with U.S. imperialism and its policy of dominating and enslaving the world. …

The U.S. imperialists fear the power of this example and everything that may help to spread it. The diary is the living expression of an extraordinary personality; a lesson in guerrilla warfare written in the heat and tension of daily events, as flammable as gunpowder; a demonstration in life that Latin Americans are not powerless in face of the enslavers of entire peoples and of their mercenary armies. That is the diary’s intrinsic value, and that is what has kept them from publishing it up until now.

Also among those who may be interested in keeping the diary unpublished are the pseudorevolutionaries, opportunists, and charlatans of every stripe. These people call themselves Marxists, Communists, and other such titles. They have not hesitated, however, to call Che a mistaken adventurer or, when they speak more benignly, an idealist whose death marked the swan song of revolutionary armed struggle in Latin America. “If Che himself,” they exclaim, “the greatest exponent of these ideas and an experienced guerrilla fighter, died in the guerrilla struggle and his movement failed to liberate Bolivia, it only shows how mistaken he was!” How many of these miserable creatures were happy at Che’s death, not even blushing at the thought that their positions and line of reasoning coincide completely with those of imperialism and the most reactionary oligarchs!
 
 
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