During his six months in Africa Che kept a diary, recording his bouts of dysentery and asthma, along with his assessment of Kabila. In the 150-page unpublished manuscript, entitled “Passages From the Revolutionary War (The Congo),” Che time and again vents his frustration with Kabila. The leader was habitually unwilling to show his face at the front, Che writes, spending his time, along with other Congolese leaders, in Cairo, Dar es Salaam and Paris “in the best hotels, issuing communiques and drinking Scotch in the company of beautiful women.” When in Kigoma (Tanzania), Kabila moved from “saloon to whorehouse,” Che writes. Kabila also refused to allow Che to participate directly in the fighting, because, according to Che, the troops would never have understood why an Argentine doctor from Cuba was leading them into combat while their local leader spent his time wining and dining. Other selections from Che’s diary:

“Every day it was the same old story; Kabila did not arrive today, but he will be here tomorrow, and if not, then the day after tomorrow… Kabila has not set foot since time immemorial at the front… Nothing leads me to believe that Kabila is the man of the hour. He allows the days to go by without worrying about anything other than political infighting and is too addicted to drink and women… If someone were to ask me whether there is an individual in the Congo who could become a national figure, I could not answer affirmatively. The only man who has the potential to be a mass leader is Kabila. A totally pure revolutionary, if he does not have leadership skills, cannot lead a revolution, but a man with leadership skills does not become, ipso facto, a revolutionary leader. One has to be serious, and possess an ideology and a spirit of sacrifice. Until now, Kabila has not shown any of these traits. He is young and might change, but for now, I am willing to express serious doubts, which will only be published many years hence, that he will be able to overcome his defects.”

Mobutu took power toward the end of 1965, and Che soon headed home. He would die less than two years later. As the journal shows, his African adventure was largely a disappointment. But he wasn’t entirely wrong in choosing the Congo as an African beachhead, nor Laurent Kabila as his associate-he was just more than 30 years ahead of his time.