The Myth of Che

Reed JOHNSON gets it right regarding Che Guevara and his false myth [“Heroes: Lionized, Supersized,” Oct. 4]. While his beliefs were somewhat different from those of Osama bin Laden, both men caused a lot of harm and carried a lot of hate (Bin Laden still does). Like Bin Laden, Guevara was a savage ideologue for whom life was worth nothing if you were on the side of the “imperialists.” Their methods are similar in that they both killed countless without legal process, all in the name of “revolutionary justice.”

The only reason Hollywood can get away with portraying Guevara in a sympathetic light is that he never got around to attacking the U.S. directly, not that he wouldn’t have if he had had the chance, while Bin Laden did strike us in our homeland, which makes him taboo even for the ultraliberals in Tinseltown.

Alexis I. Torres

Burbank

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In 1959, I was a young man in Havana with dreams of democracy and illusions of a better future for Cuba. Ten years later, I was a free man in New York City, and Ernesto “Che” Guevara was dead.

I have never understood why people believe in this man, when he did nothing to merit his fame. What he did was to destroy the lives of many who, like me, dreamed of a better world.

The myth of Guevara was created by Castro to cover a world of crimes, and the people bought it. Fidel could have had a great future on Madison Avenue.

Raul de Cardenas

Los Angeles