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The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty Alvaro Vargas Llosa The Independent Institute, 2006
Our article "China's Maoist Legacy" in this issue discusses many of the fascinating features of Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's recent book Mao: The Unknown Story. It was intriguing in that context to come upon the Llosa book on the Che Guevara myth. Mao Tse-tung and Che Guevara each occupy a prominent position among the revolutionary "icons" who loomed so large in the twentieth century. We are bound to wonder: How much were the two men alike?
Llosa brings a lot to his study of Guevara. Author of eleven books on Latin American conditions and social policy, and active both in print and television media, he is now a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute. He has supplemented his extensive background with interviews with the likes of Jose Vilasuso, an attorney and professor, who immediately after Castro's victory in Cuba was part (along with Guevara) of the "judicial" process that resulted in many executions; and Javier Arzuaga, "the Basque chaplain who gave comfort to those sentenced to die." It is a pity that this book doesn't give us the full benefit of Llosa's scholarship; the essay on Guevara is a mere 16 pages long and necessarily far less complete...