The Fall of Che Guevara A Story of Soldiers, Spies, and Diplomats

by Ryan, Henry Butterfield

• ISBN13: 9780195118797
• ISBN10: 0195118790
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-22
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Fall of Che Guevara tells the story of Guevara's last campaign, in the backwoods of Bolivia, where he hoped to ignite a revolution that would spread throughout South America. For the first time, this book shows in detail the strategy of the U.S. and Bolivian governments to foil hisefforts. Based on numerous interviews and on secret documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act from the CIA, the State Department, the Pentagon, and the National Security Archive, this work casts new light on the roles of a Green Beret detachment sent to train the Bolivians and of theCIA and other U.S. agencies in bringing Guevara down. Ryan's shows that Guevara was an agent of Cuban foreign policy from the time he met Fidel Castro in 1955 until his death--not a mere independent revolutionary, as many scholars have claimed. Guevara's attempted insurgency in Bolivia was in reality a Cuban attempt to achieve another badly-neededrevolutionary success. This dramatic account of the last days of Che Guevara will appeal to scholars and students of United States foreign policy and Latin American history, and to all those interested in this revolutionary's remarkable life.

Author Biography

Henry Butterfield Ryan is a retired United States Foreign Service officer.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xv
Introduction	3	(7)
The Road to Revolution	10	(30)
Contact and Alarm	40	(21)
The Obstacles Accumulate	61	(21)
The Green Berets	82	(21)
Guerrilla Triumph and Trouble	103	(23)
The Kill---and After	126	(29)
Memories and Legacies	155	(12)
Appendix: Chronology	167	(4)
Notes	171	(30)
Bibliography	201	(16)
Index	217