An Open Letter to the Irish: Please Dont Put Up a Statue of Commie Thug Che

Yale prof Carlos Eire writes re the plan to erect a statue of Fidel's compadre Che Guevara in, of all places, Galway, Ireland:

Che was my neighbor in Havana, and I actually saw him in the flesh several times. He lived in an opulent mansion just a few blocks from my very small house, and also ran the prison of La Cabaña, where some of my relatives ended up being tortured and murdered. Their crime? Voicing an opinion different from Che’s. Or, in the case of my uncle, simply having a son who voiced an opinion contrary to Che’s. The awful truth about Ernesto “Che” Guevara is that he was a violent thug with despotic tendencies. Che’s admirers prefer to think of him as a righteous warrior, and often cite certain books that portray him as a saint. I hate to break the news to them: Some books are full of lies.

And some people are wont to fall for pure baloney, provided the object of their veneration is a lefty icon who lived fast, died young and left a good-looking poster/T-shirt/coffee mug.