BIOGRAPHY: Fidel and Che: A Revolutionary FriendshipBy Simon Reid-Henry Sceptre, 467pp. £20
THE CUBAN revolution marked its 50th anniversary at the start of the year and this dual biography is a timely tribute to its two most recognisable figures. Reams of material have already been published on Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara but Reid-Henry draws on an extensive range of original, and recently declassified, sources to give us a solid overview of one of the 20th century's most significant friendships.
Castro and Che Guevara came from similar, educated, middle-class backgrounds - but also from different ends of Latin America; their chance coalition that became a "personal and political double act" has always had an aura of providence about it.
Reid-Henry shows us Che becoming conscious of the social injustices rife in Latin America during his early travels. He comes to view the United States as responsible: especially after witnessing first hand the overthrow of President Arbenz in Guatemala.
This conviction soon leads Che towards Marxism. As an initial admirer of the Soviet model, from his first clandestine meeting with the Russians in Cairo to a publicised state visit to Moscow in 1960, he becomes increasingly disillusioned and veers towards his own "Bolivarian desire to bring a revolution to the entire Latin American continent".
From the start, Castro's motivations are nationalistic and anti-imperialistic - he is drawn towards communism through economic expediency and the more radical influences of Che Guevara and his own brother Raúl (indeed, Raúl Castro was instrumental in the Sovietisation of the Cuban revolution; this sometimes neglected fact may merit a study of its own one day). It is interesting to see Che, in 1956, jokingly nickname his newborn daughter Little Mao - whereas even as late as the end of 1961 Castro confesses "to only having read the first few chapters of Das Kapital".
The two meet for the first time in 1955, in Mexico City, where the Castros are planning their coup d'état against US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Che, like most who meet him, is immediately won over by Fidel's magnetism and the "nervous energy with the constant swishing of his arms, the baying head" (captured by actor Demián Bichir in Stephen Soderbergh's recent film).
When they arrive in Cuba and commence their campaign from the Sierra Maestra mountain range, Che is initially mistrusted by his fellow guerrillas because he is a foreigner. But Castro stands by him and eventually promotes him to the position of "Comandante" - entitling Che Guevara to pin the star on the front of his beret, familiar to us from Alberto Korda's iconic photo.
Castro emerges from this book as the public face of the revolution; the charismatic diplomat and orator who nonetheless takes "the politically more expedient path whatever his personal view".
Although it rankles, he understands the necessity of the Soviet Union's aid for his country, and so refrains from vocally supporting armed revolutionary uprisings across the South American continent. After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and increasing aggression from the US, he even merges his own 26 July Movement with the official Cuban Communist Party.
Che Guevara comes across as the scrupulously honest, and ruthless, international revolutionary. His vision always reached far wider than just Cuba. He stays in the background but is no less instrumental to the revolution than Castro.
But Che has no patience for "Castro's Faustian pact with the communists" and by the end of 1963 begins to find himself ostracised by some of his comrades in the Cuban leadership. Castro wants to consolidate the achievements of the revolution so far, whereas Che is impatient to export its "blueprint" globally. And Castro respects these wishes.
Reid-Henry convincingly debunks various myths about a full-scale falling out between the two: When, to much speculation, Che disappears from public view in early 1965, Castro is in continuous contact with him until the end in 1967; he fully supports his endeavours whilst playing dumb to the Soviets and the rest of the world. Che, heavily disguised, leads a Cuban guerrilla force against prime minister Moise Tshombe in the Congo. This mission fails and after a period holed-up in the Cuban embassy in Dar es Salaam he is smuggled back into Cuba in late 1966, before leaving again to foment revolution in Bolivia and the rest of the continent. He is captured and executed there the following year.
After his death Castro is left "a little unburdened for not having Che Guevara around with his scruples and a little emptier for the same reason". Since which time he has managed Che's public image shrewdly, while politically "his line would always be somewhere between that offered by Che's example and that demanded by the Soviets".
What this book makes clear is how these two, essentially opposing, personalities fed off and complemented each other through "the synergy between them". Castro would probably have carved his niche in world history in any case, but Che Guevara was fortunate that Castro was able to provide his ideals with a specific purpose.
Reid-Henry's prose is rather clotted in places and he comes to some convenient conclusions; in the spirit of tribute, this book does not ask too many difficult questions. But it is a welcome and enjoyable addition to the canon of the Cuban revolution and all the more impressive for being a first book....
- JS Tennant works as an editor in Geneva. He has travelled extensively in Cuba