The Time article describes Che as creating the blueprint for Cuba’s communist revolution:
“Che has taken three crucial steps. He has cut Cuba’s main economic ties with the West and hooked them to the Communist world. He has started preparing for the war he expects the U.S. to wage against him. And he has taken bold action to spread his revolutionary influence across the rest of Latin America.”
Che’s “bold action” did influence South America. He is still seen as a communist messianic figure who promises a wonderful future — after the violent destruction of the old order.
But the brutal truth of communist regimes is a tale best told by survivors.
One such survivor is Armando Valladares, whose book Against All Hope tells the truth of an oppressive regime still supported by naïve youths wearing T-shirts featuring Che Guevara — a man Valladares witnessed as taking a deep personal interest in the interrogation, torture, and execution of political prisoners
Valladares endured 22 years as a prisoner of the Castro regime. He was arrested in 1960 because of his opposition to communism and was not released until 1982, and then only because of the intervention of international leaders and human rights organizations. From his cell window, he witnessed the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. He was tortured. He listened to Castro’s firing squads eliminate the opposition.
He remembers the West’s infatuation with and promotion of Castro, recalling that at first Castro publicly promoted democracy. Valladares wrote that Castro appeared as a guest on the famous program “Meet the Press” on April 19, 1959. Journalist Lawrence Spivak asked Castro, “I want to know where your heart lies in the struggle between Communism and democracy. Whose side, where is your heart and where are your feelings?” Castro immediately responded, ‘Democracy is my ideal, really… I am not Communist. I am not agreed with Communism… There is no doubt for me between democracy and Communism.”
The truth about Castro was soon apparent. Valladares wrote:
“Early in 1959, on January 21, to be exact, Castro gave a speech in front of the Presidential Palace in which he declared, ‘There will not be more than about four hundred henchmen and conspirators against the Revolution that we will execute.’ But many more than that had already fallen before the firing squads in those days of barbarity and death. On January 12, on a firing range located in a small valley called San Juan, at the end of the island in the province of Oriente, hundreds of soldiers from the defeated army of Batista had been lined up in a trench knee- deep and more than fifty yards long. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and they were machine- gunned there where they stood. Then with bulldozers the trenches were turned into mass graves. There had been no trial of any kind for those men. Many of them were hardly more than boys, who had joined the army because money and food were scarce at home. The mass execution was ordered by Raúl Castro and attended by him personally. Nor was it an isolated instance.”
Fidel, Che, and Raul: These have been the hellish messiahs anointed to rule over the Cuban people. The results of their dedication to their ideology have been manifestly apparent for decades. Cuba is in ruins.
However, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has noted, the communist template for Cuba and its plans to revolutionize all of South America and to influence the people of the United States continue to this day.
In view of the brutal and hellish record of its failed communist messiahs, past and present, it is only right that the ideology and actions of the current government of Cuba be confronted and resisted by the United States of America.
The Monroe Doctrine should continue to be implemented.
Witness Armando Valladares, who is now 89 years old, would no doubt approve
The Time article describes Che as creating the blueprint for Cuba’s communist revolution:
“Che has taken three crucial steps. He has cut Cuba’s main economic ties with the West and hooked them to the Communist world. He has started preparing for the war he expects the U.S. to wage against him. And he has taken bold action to spread his revolutionary influence across the rest of Latin America.”
Che’s “bold action” did influence South America. He is still seen as a communist messianic figure who promises a wonderful future — after the violent destruction of the old order.
But the brutal truth of communist regimes is a tale best told by survivors.
One such survivor is Armando Valladares, whose book Against All Hope tells the truth of an oppressive regime still supported by naïve youths wearing T-shirts featuring Che Guevara — a man Valladares witnessed as taking a deep personal interest in the interrogation, torture, and execution of political prisoners
Valladares endured 22 years as a prisoner of the Castro regime. He was arrested in 1960 because of his opposition to communism and was not released until 1982, and then only because of the intervention of international leaders and human rights organizations. From his cell window, he witnessed the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. He was tortured. He listened to Castro’s firing squads eliminate the opposition.
He remembers the West’s infatuation with and promotion of Castro, recalling that at first Castro publicly promoted democracy. Valladares wrote that Castro appeared as a guest on the famous program “Meet the Press” on April 19, 1959. Journalist Lawrence Spivak asked Castro, “I want to know where your heart lies in the struggle between Communism and democracy. Whose side, where is your heart and where are your feelings?” Castro immediately responded, ‘Democracy is my ideal, really… I am not Communist. I am not agreed with Communism… There is no doubt for me between democracy and Communism.”
The truth about Castro was soon apparent. Valladares wrote:
“Early in 1959, on January 21, to be exact, Castro gave a speech in front of the Presidential Palace in which he declared, ‘There will not be more than about four hundred henchmen and conspirators against the Revolution that we will execute.’ But many more than that had already fallen before the firing squads in those days of barbarity and death. On January 12, on a firing range located in a small valley called San Juan, at the end of the island in the province of Oriente, hundreds of soldiers from the defeated army of Batista had been lined up in a trench knee- deep and more than fifty yards long. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and they were machine- gunned there where they stood. Then with bulldozers the trenches were turned into mass graves. There had been no trial of any kind for those men. Many of them were hardly more than boys, who had joined the army because money and food were scarce at home. The mass execution was ordered by Raúl Castro and attended by him personally. Nor was it an isolated instance.”
Fidel, Che, and Raul: These have been the hellish messiahs anointed to rule over the Cuban people. The results of their dedication to their ideology have been manifestly apparent for decades. Cuba is in ruins.
However, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has noted, the communist template for Cuba and its plans to revolutionize all of South America and to influence the people of the United States continue to this day.
In view of the brutal and hellish record of its failed communist messiahs, past and present, it is only right that the ideology and actions of the current government of Cuba be confronted and resisted by the United States of America.
The Monroe Doctrine should continue to be implemented.
Witness Armando Valladares, who is now 89 years old, would no doubt approve
Historian Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times, described the 1930s as “the age of the heroic lie.” “Saintly mendacity” became its most prized virtue. Stalin’s Soviet Union was built on sanctified fabrications that characterized communist ideology and practice.
The creation of Stalin as a communist messianic figure was part of the “saintly mendacity.”
Johnson wrote that views of Stalin written in the years 1929-34 made strange reading. Enthusiastic supporters in media and political circles included H.G. Wells, who claimed “everybody trusts him.” The American ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph E. Davies, described the brutal dictator: “His brown eye is exceedingly wise and gentle. A child would like to sit on his lap and a dog would sidle up to him.” Chilean writer Pablo Neruda wrote he was “a good-natured man of principle.”
The adulatory posture of the 1930s clerisy comprised of academics, politicians, and the press toward communist thugs remained scarcely unchanged into the late 50s and 60s.
As author Matthew Blackwell points out in his essay “Devastation and Denial: Cambodia and the Academic Left,” the academic left of the 70s either evaded or completely refused to condemn the genocide committed by Pol Pot, who deeply admired Jean Paul Sartre’s philosophy of violence as a tool of change.
Blackwell points out “the French cognoscenti had become entranced by Stalinism after the Second World War. Here was a group of bright, erudite people ready to tolerate the worst crimes as long as they are committed in the name of the proper doctrines.”
The clerisy’s elevation and support of a communist messianic strongman was also on full display when Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba. On January 19, 1959, Life magazine ran an article featuring Castro’s takeover of Cuba.
The article is titled, “Liberator’s Triumphal March.” It begins, “Down from the eastern hills where he had forged his big victory, Fidel Castro marched in tumultuous triumph through the towns and villages of post-Batista Cuba. He came not as a dutifully honored conqueror, but as a man ecstatically acclaimed by the people he had liberated.”
Fidel is described as being greeted by throngs of people who threw flowers at his feet, listened to speeches in which he proclaimed “Now we are going to purify this country.” The purification was to start with a group of “impartial, honest men.”
The immediate need was for purification from the influence of the former Batista regime. A few heads had to roll in order to create a new Cuba. The minor adjustment needed for purification of the nation was only just, as Castro’s accomplices were “driven to fury by the indiscriminate torture and killing of their friends.”
The rebels immediately executed 40 of Batista’s accomplices and threw another 2,000 into jail.
Life magazine included a photo of one of the executions. The magazine’s snuff photo was captured at the moment bullets hit Cornelio Rojas, Batista’s chief of police. Rojas’ hat was flying off, his face contorted. Immediately beneath the photo was an advertisement for Campbell’s turkey noodle soup. “Have you had your soup today?” Further down, an ad for a refrigerator showed a fully cooked turkey on the shelf.
Whatever the nature of his crimes, real and/or supposed, Rojas received no trial. Nor were official or specific charges brought against him.
The new liberator of Cuba was aided by sidekick Che Guevara, whom Time magazine, in an article titled “Cuba: Castro’s Brain,” described as having a “sweet smile.”
The Time article describes Che as creating the blueprint for Cuba’s communist revolution:
“Che has taken three crucial steps. He has cut Cuba’s main economic ties with the West and hooked them to the Communist world. He has started preparing for the war he expects the U.S. to wage against him. And he has taken bold action to spread his revolutionary influence across the rest of Latin America.”
Che’s “bold action” did influence South America. He is still seen as a communist messianic figure who promises a wonderful future — after the violent destruction of the old order.
But the brutal truth of communist regimes is a tale best told by survivors.
One such survivor is Armando Valladares, whose book Against All Hope tells the truth of an oppressive regime still supported by naïve youths wearing T-shirts featuring Che Guevara — a man Valladares witnessed as taking a deep personal interest in the interrogation, torture, and execution of political prisoners
Valladares endured 22 years as a prisoner of the Castro regime. He was arrested in 1960 because of his opposition to communism and was not released until 1982, and then only because of the intervention of international leaders and human rights organizations. From his cell window, he witnessed the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. He was tortured. He listened to Castro’s firing squads eliminate the opposition.
He remembers the West’s infatuation with and promotion of Castro, recalling that at first Castro publicly promoted democracy. Valladares wrote that Castro appeared as a guest on the famous program “Meet the Press” on April 19, 1959. Journalist Lawrence Spivak asked Castro, “I want to know where your heart lies in the struggle between Communism and democracy. Whose side, where is your heart and where are your feelings?” Castro immediately responded, ‘Democracy is my ideal, really… I am not Communist. I am not agreed with Communism… There is no doubt for me between democracy and Communism.”
The truth about Castro was soon apparent. Valladares wrote:
“Early in 1959, on January 21, to be exact, Castro gave a speech in front of the Presidential Palace in which he declared, ‘There will not be more than about four hundred henchmen and conspirators against the Revolution that we will execute.’ But many more than that had already fallen before the firing squads in those days of barbarity and death. On January 12, on a firing range located in a small valley called San Juan, at the end of the island in the province of Oriente, hundreds of soldiers from the defeated army of Batista had been lined up in a trench knee- deep and more than fifty yards long. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and they were machine- gunned there where they stood. Then with bulldozers the trenches were turned into mass graves. There had been no trial of any kind for those men. Many of them were hardly more than boys, who had joined the army because money and food were scarce at home. The mass execution was ordered by Raúl Castro and attended by him personally. Nor was it an isolated instance.”
Fidel, Che, and Raul: These have been the hellish messiahs anointed to rule over the Cuban people. The results of their dedication to their ideology have been manifestly apparent for decades. Cuba is in ruins.
However, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has noted, the communist template for Cuba and its plans to revolutionize all of South America and to influence the people of the United States continue to this day.
In view of the brutal and hellish record of its failed communist messiahs, past and present, it is only right that the ideology and actions of the current government of Cuba be confronted and resisted by the United States of America.
The Monroe Doctrine should continue to be implemented.
Witness Armando Valladares, who is now 89 years old, would no doubt approve.
American Thinker
