Che Guevara on guerrilla warfare. With an introduction by Harries-Clichy Peterson.

General principles of guerrilla fighting -- The guerrilla band -- Organization of the guerrilla movement -- Appendix --

"Ernesto Guevara, the Argentine-born brains of the Cuban Revolution, published in July, 1960, a guide for Latin American guerrilla forces. Communist guerrilla warfare is cheap, difficult to combat, and differs from historic irregular operations in that it is profoundly revolutionary. While Mao’s recasting of Sun Tze provided the doctrinal foundation, the Cubans have become the masters of the applied art. They are the link between Asiatic communism and Latin American discontent. Their objective is a new social order with the agrarian masses as its revolutionary base. Guevara deems this rural emphasis the unique Cuban contribution. He asserts that in the agricultural regions of the Americas a hard core of thirty to fifty dedicated men can spark a revolution. By propaganda and education they must convince farmers that social wrongs cannot be corrected by civil means alone. The armed band then becomes the nucleus of the struggle against the oligarchy. The guerrilla fights because he is a reformer in the van of a popular movement, but he requires good leadership and the support of the local population. He strikes unexpectedly and frequently against government communications and troops on the march, seeking to capture ammunition, disrupt logistics, and wage a war of attrition. As new recruits swell the guerrilla band, it eventually becomes a regular army and shifts for the final blow to position warfare near urban centers. Guevara provides detailed advice for this brilliant and dangerous program. Ché exposes the inevitable fraud of his system when he says that guerrillas “can collect all farm output for redistribution to local residents, after meeting their own needs.” In his introduction to this first English edition, Major Peterson asserts that the United States lacks effective anti-guerrilla doctrine. He calls for hardened specialists to combat guerrillas. Guevara has performed for us an excellent service by describing the product Cuba has for export. This book is of the utmost importance in our struggle against one of the most potent instrumentalities of international communism. It is a must for specialists, military officers, and every citizen who would understand this tactical threat." From Duke University Press

Gift of Karen Wald