Guevara asserted that the success of the Cuban Revolution provided three lessons: popular forces can win a war against a regular army, guerrillas can create their own favorable conditions (not needing to wait for ideal conditions to take shape), and in the underdeveloped parts of the Americas, the basic place of operation for a guerrilla army is the countryside.
Guerrilla Warfare was influenced by two books from the Spanish Civil War: Nuevas Guerras and Medicina contra invasión.
South African revolutionaries read the work in the early 1960s; former Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils noted that the apartheid regime's police questioned his late wife about an order of "Che Guevara's book on guerrilla warfare.
Guevara states that the "three fundamental lessons" of the Cuban Revolution are:[4] 1) Popular forces can win a war against the army.
3) In underdeveloped America, the countryside is the basic area for armed fighting.In Guevara's treatment, a guerrilla is not merely a soldier, but a committed social reformer who fights for a cause, a disciplined ascetic.
The guerrilla should set the example which will inspire followers, forging solidarity with the peasantry: "The peasant must always be helped technically, economically, morally, and culturally.
The book's first chapter describes the nature, strategy, and tactics of guerrilla warfare, with reference to its employment in the case of the Cuban Revolution.
In the opening phases of war, the guerrillas must concentrate on staying alive and making small strikes against the enemy, to steadily weaken it.
Eventually, the force will change to resemble a regular army in numbers and discipline, at which point it can finally annihilate the enemy and achieve victory, the object of warfare.
The suburban zone is an extreme example of unfavorable ground, and guerrillas operating there will usually confine themselves to supportive sabotage, always under a central command.
A guerrilla's basic pack includes clothing, shoes, a knapsack, a hammock with nylon roof, a weapon, a canteen, spare food (canned), and soap.
In the Cuban case, one useful adapted weapon consisted of a Molotov cocktail projectile affixed to a 16 gauge sawed-off shotgun.
In addition to its military operations, it eventually develops its own manufacturing capabilities, and establishes its own jurisprudence and governmental administration within its own controlled territory, thereby approximating a state.
The third chapter describes the daily life in the friendly territory inhabited by the guerrilla fighter, and details its various support activities for a war effort.
Peasant farmers can give a portion of their work product to the guerrillas, and supply caches should be stored throughout the countryside.
In order to keep trust with the peasants, guerrillas must also establish forms of civil government in the friendly areas, to administer justice and de facto solutions for day-to-day problems, functions no longer performed in the zone by the alienated enemy state.
Women's capacity to contribute to a guerrilla effort should not be underestimated, and contrary to popular belief, their presence in a unit does not cause sexual tension.
However, such a punishment need not be physical: for example, depriving a guerrilla of his weapon can wound his pride and motivate the desired corrected behavior.
Bases, safe houses and supply caches must be established at multiple locations, and information must be tightly controlled and specialized among a few people, with no one knowing all details of military operation, so that it will be impossible for all secrets to be obtained by the enemy in the event that a given person is captured and tortured.
Further, the whole cultural and military apparatus of the previous regime must be completely swept away, so that soldiers of the old army and their sympathizers cannot rise up again.
While the book was intended for other revolutionary movements in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, it was also studied by counter-revolutionary military schools.