Chapter 1 General Principles of Guerrilla Warfare (1. Essence of Guerilla Warfare, 2. Guerilla Strategy, 3. Guerilla Tactics) Summary and Analysis

Che begins Guerilla Warfare by claiming that the principles that he will describe in the book are the same principles that allowed the Cuban revolutionaries that he led defeat the Batista regime in Cuba. He gives three lessons of Guerilla warfare: 1) partisans supported by the people can defeat the regular army 2) Guerilla warfare can create the conditions of the revolution and 3) In Latin American, the revolution should occur in the countryside. The first two lessons are meant to be a challenge to what Che calls the "pseudo-revolutionary" parties that wait for the conditions of revolution to arise rather than creating the revolution themselves. In this way, Che believes that the once the civil government has...