 Following the Cuban Revolution , Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government . These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals , instituting agrarian land reform as minister of industries , helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign , serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba 's armed forces , and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism . Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing the Soviet nuclear @-@ armed ballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis . Additionally , he was a prolific writer and diarist , composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare , along with a best @-@ selling memoir about his youthful continental motorcycle journey . His experiences and studying of Marxism – Leninism led him to posit that the Third World 's underdevelopment and dependence was an intrinsic result of imperialism , neocolonialism , and monopoly capitalism , with the only remedy being proletarian internationalism and world revolution . Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad , first unsuccessfully in Congo @-@ Kinshasa and later in Bolivia , where he was captured by CIA @-@ assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed . 
