Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "On the evening of December 11, 1964, Che was decked out in a long trench coat, his trademark beret with the red star cocked at..." (more)
Key Phrases: heroic guerrilla, Che Guevara, United States, Bay of Pigs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fontova gets right to the work of debunking familiar notions of Argentinan revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevera; by the end of the preface, he's pinned 14,000 executions on Guevera and credited positive portrayals to the public relations work of Castro and the laziness of biographers. The critical attack continues throughout, combining the testimonies of former revolutionaries and Cuban refugees to assemble a damning portrait of a man lauded by everyone from Jean-Paul Sartre to Jon Lee Anderson. According to Fontova, the real Che was "a revolutionary Ringo Starr" who "fell in with the right bunch and rode their coattails to world fame." Presenting a failed physician, an inept guerrilla and a hapless sycophant, Fontova adds insult to injury by claiming Che was "deathly afraid to drive a motorcycle." Fontova's charged language keeps things interesting, if occasionally dubious; midway through the book, after asserting that Che enjoyed killing dogs, Fontova concedes that, "You might put down your book here and think, this has to be propaganda." Though propaganda probably colors any consideration of this controversial figure, Fontova makes a convincing case that, in the words of one former political prisoner, "There was something seriously wrong with Che Guevera."
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Product Description

A critical biography of the iconic communist revolutionary, and an expose of the liberals who lionize him.

Nearly four decades after his death, it’s impossible to avoid the image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara everywhere from T-shirts to cartoons. Liberals consider Che a revolutionary martyr who gave his life to help the poor of Latin America. Time named him one of the one hundred most influential people of the last century. And a major Hollywood movie is about to lionize him to a new generation.

The reality, as we learn from Cuban exile Humberto Fontova, is that Che wasn’t really a gentle soul and a selfless hero. He was a violent Communist who thought nothing of firing a gun into the stomach of a woman six months pregnant whose only crime was that her family opposed him. And he was a hypocrite who lusted after material luxuries while cultivating his image as a man of the people.

Fontova reveals that Che openly talked about his desire to use nuclear weapons against New York City. Such was Che’s bloodthirsty hatred that Fontova considers him the godfather of modern terrorism.

Exposing the Real Che Guevara is based on scores of interviews with survivors of Che’s atrocities as well as the American CIA agent who interrogated Che just hours before the Bolivian government executed him.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sentinel HC (April 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595230270
• ISBN-13: 978-1595230270
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #192,456 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

231 of 280 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn about the reality of the man behind that famous image, April 24, 2007

By	Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

I am always amazed when I see the faces of Mao or Che Guevara on clothing or posters by those free spirits who imagine that these men would do anything but kill them for their social and political views. On page 16 of this book the author recounts how Henry Gomez made a t-shirt to counter all the "Che Lives" shirts floating around. His said "Che's Dead - Get Over It". Carlos Santana saw it and came over to berate him (never mind that Santata's brand of music was banned in Cuba by Guevara). Santata said, "Che may be dead for you, but he lives in our hearts ... Che is all about love and compassion." They then exchanged points. Santata's were based on fantasy and Gomez in fact. In the end, Santana said what one would expect, "You're getting hung up on facts, man." Wow.

This book recounts Che's murderous role in the deaths of more than 10,000 people after the Cuban revolution. Just one story of horror involves a mother pleading for the life of her boy directly in front of Che. He listened, thought, and then picked up the phone and shouted a command for the boy to be taken out and shot immediately. He had no respect for the law. It was a bourgeois detail that impeded the revolution. When one official pleaded for a trial before a sentence of death was passed, Che shouted that the man could conduct his trial tomorrow, but that the execution had to be conducted tonight. Even when there were trials, they were just for show with the sentences already noted on the form prior to the trail. There is much of this.

That so many on the left, including many American media outlets (such as the New York Times, Time Magazine, Life, and many others), helped Castro and Che come to power should still be a matter of shame, but is never mentioned anymore. That so many on the left extolled Che's justice, courage, beauty, and perfections should be always remembered. More than few are still writing today. All of them are wrong, all of them are perpetuating lies. Che ran from real fights and enjoyed bullying and even killing the defenseless.

Far from being a savvy guerilla leader (despite his book on the subject), he bungled every fight he was in and got lost for weeks at a time. In Bolivia, he never recruited a single Bolivian to his cause. Oh, he tricked a few into joining him by promising them training in the USSR or China, but as soon as they could, many of those deserted and became informants for those looking for Che.

If you are committed to the dream of Che, you will hate this book. If you want to know more of the reality of who he really was and the atrocities he committed, this book will be an important read for you.

Far from being Satre's "most complete human being of our time", he was a monster who improved the world most when he was sent out of it.

177 of 218 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Set the record straight!, April 23, 2007

By	Joe (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Dear Humberto,

Sorry I didn't buy your new book. Yesterday I read
about half of of it sitting in the coffee shop of my
local bookstore. Cheapness was instilled in me during
my formative years by my chinese parents. Fortunately,
their political leanings were not and I learned to
read, think, and analyze for myself.

Thank You for writing the book! Even though it's about
Che and Cuba, it means a lot to me as well--a
Chinese-American. Any book against one dictator is a
book against ALL dictators. I imagine you must feel
the same rage seeing a Che T-shirt as I do seeing a
Mao T-shirt. It bothers me that many people do not
think twice about wearing either T-shirt, but if
somebody wore a T-shirt with the visage of Hitler,
Stalin, bin Laden, or that Virginia Tech guy it'd be
all over the news.

I don't want to be a "woe is me I'm a minority/person
of color", but unfortunately part of me does feel when
it's whites killing whites (ie Hitler, Stalin) then
those dictators are evil. When it comes to "minority"
dictators, those guys are suave, cute, cuddly, or part
of "other people's" cultures. What? Dictators are
dictators regardless of country, race, culture, or
faith.

Keep up the good work! You've given me courage now to
voice my opinion. When I see someone wearing a Mao
(and Che) T-shirt I'll be sure to set them
straight. Those images are just as offensive as the
Confederate flag or a Nazi symbol.

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Che - everyone's favorite racist/murderer, August 6, 2007

By	Pops "Pops" (Northern VA) - See all my reviews

As I began this book, I thought that Fontova was ranting a bit much for my tastes, while painting a rough picture of Che. I read Fontova's account of his family's escape from Cuba and saw that this colored his view of things to some degree. By the end, I was right there with Fontova, as the evidence became clearer and clearer that Che was a sick man who took pleasure in killing (according to his own hand, in a letter to his father). He was a man who was only brave when his opponents were defenseless.

Some basic points of background:
1) The hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees were not fleeing a kindly ruler, nor were they all wealthy. Dismissing their ire at Castro and Che -- and their eyewitness accounts of their brutalities -- is equivalent to dismissing the anger that Poles or German Jews reserve for Nazis.

2) The glowing portrayals of Che are based on Castro-produced stories, Che's own delusional diaries, and the fawning of Che's buddies like Sartre. Would we only consult the North Korean propaganda ministry for a biography of Kim Jong Il? Eyewitness accounts of Che's murderous ways are not hard to find.

This book used a fair amount of second hand sources, but Fontova also included numerous stirring accounts from eyewitnesses that really makes it impossible to believe that anyone would consider Che Guevara to be admirable in any way.