While reading Che Guevara’s Bolivian Diary I kept coming back to something, but it wasn’t something Che wrote, it was something Fidel Castro wrote in the introduction. He wrote, “some may interpret our decision to publish [The Bolivian Diary] as an act of provocation that will give the enemies of the revolution–the Yankee imperialists and their allies, the Latin American oligarchs–arguments for redoubling their efforts to blockade, isolate and attack Cuba.” (pg. 11) I was intrigued by this admission because it seemed startlingly obvious once I read it but had not occurred to me until then. Not only could the publication of this text potentially support action like that, it also potentially allows enemies at the time and in the future a glimpse into the day-to-day mechanisms and strategies of this guerrilla group. One might wonder what could be gleaned from this text as it is often slow and mundane and any helpful information would surely have been obvious to their enemies anyways. It is a text that is preoccupied with many of the small aspects of guerrilla warfare that are often invisibilized within a larger, theatrical depiction of events (such as the Soderberg’s Che.) Che meticulously recounts events such as surveying land, patiently awaiting additional recruits, the weather and the precarious nature of communication amongst guerrilla soldiers. His entries do not hide or emphasize the sometimes disorganized state of his troops. What could their enemies learn from this text that they would not already know by virtue of being soldiers themselves? A lot, actually (I think.)
I think we often overestimate the intelligence of military apparatuses, especially large ones. I sometimes forget that funding/resources does not (actually almost never) equals competence. Hitler tried to invade Russia during the middle of winter, twice. Not only could their enemies, imperialist and oligarchs alike, stand to learn about them, they could also improve their own strategies against Che and his fighters. Che is often cited as inspirational by guerilla groups operating presently which suggests that this text has not lost its relevance of applicability today. Since it is still being used by guerrilla group it stands to reason that it could still be being used by their opponents as well. The people who published this text must have realized and assumed responsibility for that risk. Perhaps they assumed that the potential good that might arise from its circulation would outweigh the potentially negative ways it might be taken up and studied by some.
I think a common theme you are trying to bring up in your blog is audience. Why was this diary written, for whom, and what are the consequences therefore? I never thought about that when reading this diary. If anything, I found it very dry and repetitive. But now that I am thinking about it, despite the various reactions it may provoke, all this meticulousness really aims at showing how serious guerrilla warfare is. It’s a question of life or death, so for any solider on the field, this book is their bible, or their protection against death. In short, this book has VALUE. And I’m not talking about money, rather life/personal/survival value.
And is this diary used nowadays by modern guerrilla movements? I don’t know. But it would definitely be interesting to find out.
I think one thing modern guerrilla movements could take from reading Che’s Bolivian diary is how detached from society one needs to become, or more specifically detached from yourself. What I mean by this is you need become another person, and whatever mattered to you before has no value now that you have become a revolutionary. For example, your family doesn’t matter anymore, and neither do your friends or any social bonds you had. We see this happen with Che, since he only mentions birthdays in his family and nothing more. No feelings are shared, almost as if showing feelings would be to show weakness and maybe distract oneself from the cause. I think what this all means is that to become a true revolutionary true change needs to happen within, and that means that you have to detach yourself from your past self and become something completely new and different.
This kind of book could definitely be used by counterrevolutionary forces to suppress guerrilla organisations, as with Che’s Guerrilla Warfare. The CIA would probably have already obtained a copy of the original diary through the Bolivian government and army though, so there probably wasn’t too much to lose by publishing it.