A CUBANINSIDER MISTAKE?

You Judge!!

    More than once in this forum I have suggested and attempted to document one of my most researched beliefs, which is that Cuba's revolutionary icon, Celia Sanchez, is "history's all-time greatest female guerrilla fighter." I'll stand by that assertion even though today I received an email from a Vietnam vet -- Ben T. from Oregon -- who disagreed. He directed me to a NY Times' article on January 17, 2017 entitled: "AS THE EARTH SHOOK, THEY STOOD FIRM." Ben T. was not derogatory in his disagreement but merely expressed his first-hand and researched opinion as indicated by his first sentence: "I agree with most of your input on your interesting blog but believe you have zeroed too much on Cuba's singular Revolutionary War with your insistence that Celia Sanchez is history's greatest female guerrilla fighter. Vietnam, for example, was littered with many worthy candidates, as I personally observed." And with that, Ben T. suggested I check out that day's NY Times' article, which, being inquisitive, I most certainly did.

        The photo above is courtesy of Thanh Phong and the New York Times. It was featured in the aforementioned New York Times' article -- "As the Earth Shook, They Stood Firm" -- that caught Ben T.'s attention and then mine. This Vietnamese girl is Ben T's pick as the greatest female guerrilla fighter. Her name is Vo Thi Mo. She was 13 when this photo was taken and that's when she became a guerrilla fighter for the Vietcong, the North Vietnamese, against South Vietnamese and American soldiers.

      By the time she was 20, Vo Thi Mo was a legendary guerrilla fighter in the Vietnam War with heroism well known to both sides. She was also the Commander of Vietcong units that repeatedly took on and defeated supposedly superior South Vietnamese and American forces, such as in 1967 when she opposed a powerful battalion of the U. S. 25th Division, which was supported by massive air bombardments. When the war ended, Ms. Mo had played a vital role in deciding the outcome, which includes the renaming of the famed city of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City as well as the unification of Vietnam under Communist rule that today is prosperous and U.S.-friendly. 

         Now 70-years-old, Ms. Mo is back living in the little Vietnamese village, Cu Chi, where she was born. The NY Times' article uses declassified CIA and Vietnam documents -- now archived at Texas Tech University -- to confirm her legend. Those archives include these exact quotes from Ms. Mo:

                  "I had never been to any military school. As a girl, I was so scared when I cocked a gun for the first time. But, you know, I learned a lot on the battlefields. I was not scared of the enemy. I fought against them to the end. I felt hatred toward them but I also saw their young men were to be pitied." She then recalled when her unit spied four young U. S. soldiers actually sitting on a landmine that she could have easily detonated. Through binoculars she noticed they were reading letters from home and...crying. "My messenger boy wanted to kill them, but I resisted because I saw they cried as they looked at letters and pictures that I guessed came from their families. I felt sorry for them. My messenger boy asked me why I fought the Americans but didn't kill them. He wanted to kill them so we would be awarded the Military Victory Medal. I told him, 'If you kill them, I will kill you.' I thought they might be students in their homeland but they were drafted, so they came here to fight. I did not kill them although I knew I could be disciplined." 

Vo Thi Mo -- guerrilla fighter in the Vietnam War.

Vo Thi Mo--at peace today in Cu Chi, Vietnam.

           Alright, Ben T., now that I know about Vo Thi Mo, I accept your hint that she, or someone like her, might be the all-time greatest female guerrilla fighter. But rest assured that my opinions regarding my choice, Celia Sanchez, remain intact.

     This photo was taken during the height of Cuba's Revolutionary War against the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, which also included powerful airstrikes against the rebel-guerrilla fighters. That's why this photo resonates; Celia is holding a candle inside a rebel cabin so she could study a battle report and Fidel Castro could read a book. Years later, he indicated the book was Earnest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls." The all-business Celia was not just a do-or-die guerrilla fighter. Both during the war and later in Revolutionary Cuba she was a prime decision-maker, with the total concurrence of Fidel Castro. That's why Cuba's best historian, Pedro Alvarez Tabio, correctly wrote: "If Batista had managed to kill Celia Sanchez anytime between 1953 and 1957, there would have been no viable Cuban Revolution and no revolution for Fidel and Che to join." Celia died of cancer at age 59 on Jan. 11-1980 in Revolutionary Cuba, after which Roberto Salas -- the great photographer who was an intimate of both Celia and Fidel -- correctly wrote in his book: "Celia made all the decisions for Cuba, the big ones and the small ones. When she died in 1980, we all knew no one could ever replace her." And no one has.

As a guerrilla fighter, Celia Sanchez was nonpareil.

    But as a guerrilla fighter and as a revolutionary decision-maker, Celia Sanchez is also unmatched, in my opinion. Her role in Cuba's Revolutionary War and later in Revolutionary Cuba has had, to this day, remarkable repercussions for Cuba, Latin America, the United States and the world. Yes, Ms. Mo's role in the Vietnam War has also, till this day, had remarkable repercussions for Vietnam, Asia, the United States and the world. So, Ms. Mo is indeed a worthy contender. But I truly believe that Celia Sanchez remains in a class by herself as a female revolutionary.

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