Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Intellectuals and Politics
- 2 Mussolini, Fascism, and Intellectuals
- 3 Hitler, Nazism, and Intellectuals
- 4 Stalin, Rakosi, Soviet Communism, and Intellectuals
- 5 Western Intellectuals, Mao's China, and Cambodia under Pol Pot
- 6 Castro, Che Guevara, and Their Western Admirers
- 7 Other Dictators and Their Admirers in More Recent Times
- 8 Conclusions: The Personal and the Political
- Index
6 - Castro, Che Guevara, and Their Western Admirers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Intellectuals and Politics
- 2 Mussolini, Fascism, and Intellectuals
- 3 Hitler, Nazism, and Intellectuals
- 4 Stalin, Rakosi, Soviet Communism, and Intellectuals
- 5 Western Intellectuals, Mao's China, and Cambodia under Pol Pot
- 6 Castro, Che Guevara, and Their Western Admirers
- 7 Other Dictators and Their Admirers in More Recent Times
- 8 Conclusions: The Personal and the Political
- Index
Summary
As Fidel spoke, I allowed myself to listen closely and feel that peculiar sensation I experience in his presence, as if meeting with a force of nature, a man so filled with the energy of the historical mission that he is almost a different species. Power radiates from him.
Saul Landau[Y]ou gave all of us who are alone in this country … some sense that there were heroes in the world … It was as if the ghost of Cortez had appeared in our century riding Zapata's white horse. You were the first and greatest hero to appear in the world since the Second War … you gave a bit of life to the best and most passionate men and women all over the earth, you are the answer to the argument … that revolutions cannot last, that they turn corrupt or total or they eat their own.
Norman Mailer[Che Guevara] presided over the Cuban Revolution's first firing squads … [and] founded Cuba's labor camp system … The present day cult of Che … has succeeded in obscuring this dreadful reality … Che was an enemy of freedom and yet he has been erected into a symbol of freedom. He helped establish an unjust social system in Cuba and has been erected into a symbol of social justice.
Paul BermanCASTRO'S CHARISMA AND CULT
The admiration of Fidel Castro by intellectuals and non-intellectuals alike stands out as one of the purest instances of political hero worship in our times. Castro was exceptionally well suited for this role: he was young (when his worship began and was most intense), handsome, dynamic, articulate, a powerful speaker, a genuine revolutionary and guerilla fighter who overthrew an oppressive government. He was, in all probability, the most charismatic of all the dictators considered in this study. Georgie Anne Geyer noted his “unusual physical and psychological, propensities – the frenzied and ceaseless talking … the manic energy that seemed almost superhuman as he often went days without sleeping.” He often met visitors from abroad late night or early morning (like Stalin), impressing them with his stamina.
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- Chapter
- Information
- From Benito Mussolini to Hugo ChavezIntellectuals and a Century of Political Hero Worship, pp. 204 - 243Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2017