17. Alberto Castellanos, interview with the author, Havana, January 23, 1996.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Carlos Franqui, Retrato de familia con Fidel (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1981), p. 449.
23. Carlos Franqui, interview with the author, San Juan, August 2, 1996.
24. Ibid.
25. Ciro Bustos, telephone conversation with the author, September 7, 1996.
26. Mikhail Suslov, quoted in Thomas Hughes/INR-DOS, Cuba 1964, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Research Memorandum, Department of State, April 17, 1964 (Secret), p. 10, NSF, Country File, Cuba, vol. 1, LBJ Library.
27. MID-9-V-63, Aleksandr Alexeiev, “Memorandum of Conversation of February 25, 1963, with Minister of Industries Ernesto Guevara,” May 9, 1963 (Secret), Archives of the Foreign Ministry, Moscow.
28. Ibid.
29. Department of Defense Intelligence Information Report (Col. J. E. Boyt), “Disarming of Cuban Military Personnel and Transfer of Military Bases to Soviet Control,” July 12, 1963 (Confidential), Miami, Report No. 2201094463.
30. Ernesto Che Guevara, Ministry of Industries Meeting of December 5, 1964, Minutes, p. 568.
31. MID-374-4.IX.63, Oleg Daroussenkov, “Memorandum of Conversation of August 27 with Minister of Industries Ernesto Guevara,” September 4, 1963 (Top Secret), Archives of the Foreign Ministry, Moscow.
32. Ibid.
33. Oleg Daroussenkov, “Memorandum of Conversation of October 16, 1964, with Minister of Industries Ernesto Guevara,” October 27, 1964, Russian National Archive, File no. 5, List no. 49, no. 758, Moscow.
34. George Ball to All American Diplomatic Posts, “Significance of Castro’s Second Visit to the USSR,” Department of State, January 28, 1964 (Confidential). See also a report by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, “Castro’s Second Visit to Moscow; History Repeats Itself,” INR to Acting Secretary, INR Research Memorandum, Department of State, January 24, 1964 (Secret), p. 6, NSF, Country File, Cuba Cables, vol. 1, LBJ Library.
35. Report delivered by the Brazilian ambassador in Washington to Secretary Rusk, forwarded to McGeorge Bundy, National Security Adviser, undated, no classification. The report is quoted in a secret intelligence note from Thomas Hughes to Secretary Rusk, dated July 22, 1964, NSF, Country File, Cuba, INR Reports, Vol. I, no. 16 memo, LBJ Library.
36. Ernesto Che Guevara, Bi-Monthly Meeting, October 12, 1963, Minutes, pp. 387–390.
37. Victor Bogorod, interview with the author, Paris, February 11, 1995.
38. Ernesto Che Guevara, Minutes, pp. 387–388. This text appears word for word in the Carlos Franqui archive, Princeton University, Collection C0644, box 22, folder 7, October 12, 1963.
39. Bogorod, interview, and Charles Bettelheim, interview with the author, Paris, March 5, 1996.
40. Alban Lataste, “El próximo quinquenio económico 1966–1970,” Comercio Exterior (Havana), July–September 1963, p. 44.
41. Ibid.
42. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “Sobre la contribución del Che al desarrollo de la economia cubana,” Cuba Socialista (Havana), No. 33, May–July 1988, p. 11.
43. Ernesto Che Guevara, “Discurso en el seminario sobre planificacion en Argelia,” July 13, 1963, quoted in Ernesto Che Guevara, Temas Económicos (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1988), pp. 215–216.
44. George Kidd, Canadian Embassy, Havana, to Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa, “Industrialisation in Cuba,” September 4, 1963 (Confidential), Foreign Office Archive F0371/168174, Public Record Office, London.
45. René Dumont, Cuba Est-Il Socialiste? (Paris: Seuil, 1970), p. 42.
46. “Cuba: Changing Policy for Industrial Development,” Intelligence Digest (Secret), quoted in Haselden to Eccles, British Embassy, Havana, December 13, 1963 (Confidential), Foreign Office Archive F0371/168174, Public Record Office, London.
47. MID-374-4.IX.63, Oleg Daroussenkov.
48. Ernesto Che Guevara, Minutes, p. 447.
49. Ernesto Che Guevara, Minutes, 1964, p. 577.
50. Marifeli Pérez-Stable, The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course and Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 96.
51. Bettelheim, interview.
52. Ernesto Che Guevara, “La planificacion socialista,” p. 346.
53. Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, “Sobre la contribucion del Che,” p. 20.
54. Victor Bondarchuk, interview with the author, Moscow, October 31, 1995.
55. Ernesto Che Guevara, Minutes, p. 508.
56. Richard Helms, Deputy Director for Planning to Director of Central Intelligence, “Plans of Cuban Exiles to Assassinate Selected Cuban Government Leaders,” June 10, 1964 (Secret), Gerald L. Ford Presidential Library.
57. Ernesto Che Guevara, letter to Aleida Coto Martínez, May 23, 1964, quoted in Cupull and González, Un hombre bravo, p. 258.
58. Marta Rojas and Mirta Rodríguez, Tania: La guerrillera inolvidable (Havana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1970), p. 210.
59. Canek Sánchez Guevara, interviews with the author, Havana, January 26, 1996, and Mexico City, August 15, 1996.
60. Ernesto Che Guevara, Meeting of July 11, 1964, Minutes, pp. 527–528.
61. The memories of Sergo Mikoyan are categorical in this regard. Sergo Mikoyan, “Encuentros con Che Guevara,” Revista America Latina, Academia de Ciencias de la URSS, Instituto de América Latina, no. 1, 1974, p. 192.
62. Ernesto Che Guevara, “Discurso en la Conferencia de Naciones Unidas sobre Comercio y Desarrollo,” Geneva, March 25, 1964, quoted in Ernesto Che Guevara, Temas Economicos, p. 416.
63. Ibid., p. 424.
64. Oleg Daroussenkov, “Memorandum of Conversation of April 29, 1964, with Ernesto Guevara,” May 18, 1964 (Secret), Russian National Archive, File No. 5, List No. 49, Document 760.
65. Gustavo Petriciolli, interview with the author, Cuernavaca, Mexico, September 18, 1996.
66. Central Intelligence Agency, “Special Report, Cuban Training and Support for African Nationalists,” January 31, 1964.
67. Oleg Daroussenkov, interview with the author, San Diego, January 10, 1996.
68. Arnoldo Martínez Verdugo, interview with the author, Mexico City, September 11, 1996. The statement was also quoted by Cayetano Carpio in his book, La lucha de clases, motor del desarrollo de la Guerra Popular de Liberatión (San Salvador: Ediciones enero 32), p. 138.
69. Ernesto Che Guevara, Meeting of December 5, 1964, Minutes, pp. 565–569.
70. Martínez Verdugo, interview.
71. G. Michael Schatzberg, Mobutu or Chaos? The United States and Zaire, 1960–1990 (New York and Philadelphia: University Press of America/Foreign Policy Research Institute, 1991), p. 28. See also G. Madeleine Kalb, The Congo Cables (New York: Macmillan, 1982), pp. 378–379.
72. Havana Telegram No. 50 to Foreign Office, Cuban Political Situation (Confidential), December 12, 1964, Foreign Office Archive F0317/174007, Public Record Office, London.
73. Ernesto Che Guevara, “Discurso en la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas,” in Ernesto Che Guevara, Escritos y discursos, vol. 9 (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1977), p. 288.
74. Ibid., pp. 291–292.
75. Tad Szulc, Fidel: A Critical Portrait (New York: Avon, 1987; first edition 1986), p. 665.
76. Gordon Chase to McGeorge Bundy, Che Guevara, Washington (Top Secret, Eyes Only), December 15, 1964 (copy, LBJ Library).
77. The memorandum in which McCarthy’s name first appears unexpurgated is one from Gordon Chase to McGeorge Bundy, dated December 18, 1964 (Secret). The sanitized sections were reinstated on December 7, 1994, The White House, Washington.
78. Department of State, Memorandum of Conversation, Under Secretary George Ball, Senator Eugene McCarthy to Assistant Secretary Thomas Mann, December 17, 1964 (Secret), Declassified Documents Catalog, Research Publications (Woodbridge, Conn.).
79. Ernesto Che Guevara, “Discurso en e
l Conglomerado Industrial 30 de noviembre,” Santiago, Cuba, November 30, 1964, quoted in Zarco Bozik, “Cuban Panorama: To Overcome Monoculture by Developing Monoculture,” Borba (Belgrade), December 28, 1964.
80. Thompson (Havana) to Brown (American Department), Internal Situation, September 1, 1964 (Confidential), Foreign Office Archive F0371/74006, Public Record Office, London.
81. Quoted in Clissold/Havana to Foreign Office, Internal Situation, May 29, 1964 (no classification), Foreign Office Archive F0371/174005, Public Record Office, London.
Chapter 9:
Che Guevara’s Heart of Darkness
1. Ahmed Ben Bella, interview with the author, Geneva, November 4, 1995.
2. Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Alain Forest, and Herbert Weiss, Rébellions-Révolution au Zaïre, 1963–1965 (Paris: Editions L’Harmattan, 1987), vol. 1, p. 164.
3. Ludo Martens, Pierre Mulele, ou la Seconde Vie de Patrice Lumumba (Antwerp: Editions EPO, 1985), p. 12.
4. See Madeleine G. Kalb, The Congo Cables: The Cold War in Africa—From Eisenhower to Kennedy (New York: Macmillan, 1982), p. 378.
5. Ibid., p. 220.
6. David Gibbs, The Political Economy of Third World Intervention: Mines, Money and U.S. Policy in the Congo Crisis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), p. 157.
7. Coquery-Vidrovitch et al., Rébellions, pp. 158–159.
8. According to a cable from the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, Dutch sources in Havana reported this information. Department of State, Airgram AmEmbassy The Hague to DOS, African Travels of Che Guevara, February 16, 1965 (Confidential), NSF, Country File, Box 17, Vol. 4, #71 airgram, LBJ Library.
9. Ben Bella, interview.
10. INR/Thomas Hughes to the Secretary, Che Guevara’s African Venture, RAR-13, April 19, 1965 (Secret), NSF, Country File, Cuba, Activities of Leading Personalities, no. 18 memo, LBJ Library.
11. Ben Bella, interview.
12. Jorge Serguera, interview with the author, Havana, January 23, 1996.
13. Piero Gleijeses, “Cuba’s First Venture in Africa: Algeria, 1961–1965,” Journal of Latin American Studies (London University), no. 28, Spring 1996, p. 175.
14. Ibid.
15. Ben Bella, interview.
16. Pablo Ribalta, interview with the author, Havana, August 26, 1996.
17. Serguera, interview.
18. Dariel Alarcón Ramírez, “Benigno,” Vie et Mort de la Revolution Cubaine (Paris: Fayard, 1996), p. 102.
19. Dariel Alarcón Ramírez, “Benigno,” interview with the author, Paris, November 3, 1995. Benigno “was appointed chief of Che’s personal security detail when he was President of the National Bank of Cuba.” Revista Habanera (Havana), January 1995, p. 16.
20. Director of Intelligence and Research, U.S. Department of State, Intelligence Note, January 22, 1965 (copy LBJ Library).
21. Thomas Hughes to the Secretary INR/DOS, Latin American Communists Hold Strategy Conference (Secret). See also George Denney to Acting Secretary, INR/DOS, Guerrilla and Terrorist Activity in Latin America Over the Past Four Months, April 8, 1965 (Secret), Declassified Documents Catalog, Research Publications (Woodbridge, Conn.), file series no. 3354, vol. 18, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 1992.
22. Mario Monje, interview with the author, Moscow, October 28, 1995.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Emilio Aragonés, interview with the author, Havana, January 23, 1996.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. AmEmbassy Dar-es-Salaam to SecState, February 16, 1965 (Confidential), NSF, Country File, Cuba, Activities of Leading Personalities, Box 20, #32 cable, LBJ Library, based upon a report from the Nigerian Chargé d’Affaires.
29. Ernesto Che Guevara, “Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria (el Congo), Unpublished manuscript, 1966, p. 4.
30. Ibid., pp. 3–4.
31. Central Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Information Cable, Presence of Cuban Technical Advisers at Secret Training Camp for Algerian Militia, January 26, 1965 (Secret).
32. Rafael del Pino, interview with the author, Washington, D.C., September 30, 1995.
33. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 6.
34. Ernesto Che Guevara, “Discurso en el Segundo Seminario Económico de Solidaridad Afroasiática,” Algiers, February 24, 1965, quoted in Ernesto Che Guevara, Temas Económicos (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1988), pp. 434–435.
35. Ibid., pp. 439–440.
36. See especially Thomas Hughes to the Secretary, INR Research Memorandum 21, The Cuban Revolution: Phase Two, August 10, 1965 (Confidential), p. 3, NSF, Country File, Cuba. W. G. Bowdler File, vol. 1, no. 46 memo, LBJ Library. Also see an analysis of Cuba’s response to the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republìc. Thomas Hughes to the Secretary, Cuba: Resurgent Faith in the Latin American Revolution, INR-DOS, May 20, 1965, NSF, Country File, Cuba, INR Reports, vol. 1, no. 4 memo, LBJ Library.
37. ARA/CCA: WWSmith:vc, British Embassy in Havana, Memorandum for the Files, “Whereabouts of Che Guevara” (Secret), undated, Foreign Office Archive FO/371/AK1015/46, Public Record Office, London.
38. Mohammed Heikal, The Cairo Documents (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973), p. 353.
39. Carlos Franqui, Vida, aventuras y desastres de un hombre llamado Castro (Mexico City: Planeta, 1988), p. 330.
40. Serguera, interview.
41. Dariel Alarcón Ramírez, “Benigno,” interview with the author, Paris, November 3, 1995.
42. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” pp. 25, 148.
43. Fidel Castro, in Gianni Miná, Un encuentro con Fidel, Office of Publications of the State Council, Havana, 1988, p. 324.
44. Carlos Franqui, interview with the author, San Juan, August 20, 1996.
45. Ibid.
46. Victor Dreke, interview with the authors, quoted in Félix Guerra, Froilán Escobar, and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, El año que estuvimos en ninguna parte (Mexico City: Planeta, 1994), p. 35.
47. See the authors’ interviews with several members of the expeditionary force, especially Kumi, in Taibo et al., El año, p. 37.
48. Aleksandr Alexeiev, interview with the author, Moscow, October 28, 1995.
49. Roberto Guevara, interview with the author, Buenos Aires, August 23, 1996.
50. Central Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Memorandum No. 2333/65, The Fall of Che Guevara and the Changing Face of the Cuban Revolution, October 18, 1965 (Limited Official Use), NSF, Country File, Cuba, Bowdler File, vol. 1, LBJ Library.
51. Fidel Castro, speech of July 26, 1965, quoted in Bohemia (Havana), July 30, 1965, p. 35.
52. Central Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Memorandum No. 2333/65, p. 8.
53. Ernesto Che Guevara, interview in Al-Tali-’ah, published in Rolando E. Bonachea and Nelson P. Valdés, eds., Che: Selected Works of Ernesto Guevara (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969), p. 413.
54. Ibid., p. 411.
55. Ernesto Che Guevara, “El socialismo y el hombre en Cuba,” Marcha (Montevideo), March 12, 1965, quoted in Guevara, Escritos y discursos, vol. 8 (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1977), p. 259.
56. Ibid., pp. 256–257.
57. Ibid., pp. 261, 270.
58. Pablo Ribalta, interview.
59. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 7.
60. Ibid., p. 14.
61. Oscar Fernández Mell, interview with the author, Havana, August 24, 1995.
62. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” pp. 18, 19.
63. Ibid., p. 34.
64. Guevara, Journal, p. 39.
65. Ibid., pp. 41, 44.
66. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 60.
67. Ibid., p. 63.
68. Aragonés, interview, August 24, 1995.
69. Fernández Mell, interview.
70. Aragonés, interview.
71. Ibid.
72. Bem Hardenne, “Les Operations Anti-Guerillas dans l’Est du Congo en 1965–1966,” report February 1969, mimeograph, p. 22.
73. Law
rence Devlin, telephone conversation with the author, Princeton, N.J., November 1995.
74. Ibid.
75. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” pp. 81–82.
76. Fernández Mell, interview.
77. Gustavo Villoldo, interview, Miami, November 21, 1995.
78. Devlin, telephone conversation with author.
79. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 85.
80. Benigno, interview.
81. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 85.
82. Ernesto Che Guevara, letter to Fidel Castro, October 5, 1966, quoted in Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” pp. 86–87.
83. Benigno, interview.
84. Aragonés and Fernández Mell, interviews with the author, Havana, August 24, 1995.
85. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 151.
86. Benigno, interview.
87. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 99.
88. Robert W. Kormer to McGeorge Bundy, The White House, October 29, 1965 (Secret), NSF, Country File, Congo, vol. 12, October 1965–66, memo, LBJ Library.
89. Aragonés, interview.
90. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 99.
91. Benigno, interview.
92. Fidel Castro, letter to Ernesto Che Guevara, November 4, 1965, quoted in Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” pp. 118–119.
93. Ibid.
94. Aragonés, interview.
95. Ibid.
96. Ibid.
97. Benigno, interview, and Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 138.
98. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” p. 1.
99. Lawrence Devlin, telephone conversation.
100. Major Bem Hardenne, “Les Opérations Anti-Guerillas,” pp. 19–20.
101. These comments and those in the two paragraphs that follow were shared with the author by Jules Gérard-Libois in the course of several telephone conversations, especially on November 18, 1995, and in December 1995, and in an exchange of letters in early 1996.
102. Devlin, telephone conversation; Villoldo, interview; William Bowdler, telephone conversation with author, November 8, 1996.
103. Guevara, “Pasajes … (el Congo),” pp. 150, 151, 152.
Chapter 10:
Betrayed by Whom in Bolivia?
Companero Page 66