After the end of the war trials, Che took another role that would impact him dramatically. He took up the role as an unofficial diplomat for Cuba. In February of 1960, French Marxist philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre travelled to Cuba and visited Che Guevara. Sartre was known to be extremely impressed with Che Guevara. When he died, Sartre wrote of Che that he was "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age" (Anderson 446). He saw Che as the very epitome of his ideas of existential optimism. The image of Che Guevara meeting with the two French intellectuals is seen on the right, still in his revolutionary uniform. Later, in November of that year, Che began a travel around the world that would include stops in the world's most influential communist powers. This included a trip to the Soviet bloc, Moscow, China, and North Korea. During his trip, Che would successfully find markets for Cuban goods in Chine and the Soviet Union, despite the Sino-Soviet struggle that was ongoing. Pictured above on the left is Che Guevara in his meeting with the leader of communist China, Mao Tse-Tung. After such a successful trip and some strong demands from Fidel Castro, American President Eisenhower cut off all relations with Cuba.
images: Che, Sartre, and Beauvoir (Anderson 446), Che and Mao (Anderson, 468)
info: (Anderson 446-468), (Rowlandson 63-65)
images: Che, Sartre, and Beauvoir (Anderson 446), Che and Mao (Anderson, 468)
info: (Anderson 446-468), (Rowlandson 63-65)