"In the late 1960s, if a popularity poll had been taken among the protesters, Lev Trotski, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara would probably have headed the list. They were disgusted with Soviet leaders from Stalin to Brezhnev and agreed that American Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, who had reinforced the USA’s military intervention in the conflict in Vietnam, were war criminals. The esteem for Che Guevara was enhanced by his good looks. The fact that Guevara died on campaign in Bolivia even though he could have had a comfortable career in Cuba was also counted unto him for righteousness. A similar reaction was evoked by Ho Chi Minh. Like Guevara, he was taking on the might of ‘American imperialism’. Data on Ho’s repressive regime in Hanoi were limited and would anyway have been disbelieved by his admirers if they had learned about them. The chant went up outside American embassies and on peace marches: ‘Ho! Ho! Ho Chi Minh!’"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Robert Service, Comrades: A History of World Communism (2009)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Che_Guevara
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"Words that do not match deeds are unimportant."
"Silence is argument carried out by other means."
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. It exists when people liberate themselves."
"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall."
"In order to know about the illnesses of society, you have to know what men are suffering from, how they suffer."
"I don't think you and I are very closely related, however, if you are capable of trembling with indignation each time…"
"Real revolutionaries adorn themselves on the inside, not on the surface."
"I knew that the moment the great governing spirit strikes the blow to divide all humanity into just two opposing fact…"
"We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it."
"Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel!"