1962
Self-improvement
On 27th January Guevara stressed on television the importance of voluntary work.
On 31st January, in a speech, he underlined the importance of working on oneself.
“We have to work to improve ourselves in an almost obsessive manner, with unwavering commitment, to honestly analyze every day what we have done, correct our mistakes and start over the next day […].”
10 May: in the great hall of the University of Havana, standing before the students of the Faculty of Technology, Che said, “What are the essential characteristics needed to build our new society? They are the development of a socialist conscience and increased production […].”
Birth of his son Camilo
Che’s second child by Aleida, Camilo Guevara March, was born on 20th March. He was named after Che’s friend and companion in a “hundred battles”, Cienfuegos, who had died in 1959. On 28th October that year, Cuba had been shocked by the death of one of the heroes of the revolution, the “Lord of the Vanguard”, as his great friend Guevara called him. While returning to Havana from a mission in Camagüey, the Cessna plane carrying Camilo Cienfuegos disappeared into the sea. All the searches carried out in the days that followed (which Che and Fidel Castro took part in) were fruitless.
The missile crisis
Between 26th August and 9th September Guevara was in Moscow, where he met Nikita Khrushchev. They both agreed on installing medium-range missiles in Cuba, in order to strengthen the young republic’s ability to defend itself.
On 15th October, U2 planes from the US took photographs of the Cuban missile bases, looking for nuclear weapons. It was the beginning of what became known as “the missile crisis”.
22 October: Kennedy spoke of the risk of a nuclear war on television. Khrushchev made an appeal against the pointlessness of a blockade around the island. On 23rd October, Kennedy decreed a military blockade and 183 US warships concentrated around Cuba. Khrushchev ordered the Soviet ships not to force the blockade.
26 October: in a private letter to Kennedy, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles on condition that the United States agreed to not invade Cuba and to dismantle the North American missiles deployed in Italy and Turkey. The proposal was accepted. Moscow withdrew the missiles without consulting the Cuban government. This unilateral decision was the source of considerable discord.
Human above all…
On 20th October, in the middle of the crisis, Guevara had delivered the speech “What A Young Communist Should Be”. “A young communist must be essentially human and be so human to be almost perfect […]. And if someone says we are just romantics […], that the masses of people cannot be turned into almost perfect human beings, we will have to answer a thousand times: Yes, it can be done. We are right and the people as a whole can advance.”
and then