In January 1960 Che and Jorge Ricardo Masetti created the Prensa Latina news agency - to give fair news coverage about Cuba while the USA were spreading hostile propaganda - and they invited delegates from news agencies all over the world.
On 28th January Che gave a speech at the National Capitol during a ceremony to commemorate José Martí's birthday - while a possibly US plane set fire more than 170 million kilos of sugar cane in Camagüey. It was one of the mysterious sabotage acts that became often.
On 4th February Che greeted the deputy premier of the USSR, Anastas Mikoyan in Havana - diplomatic and economic relations were created. The USSR agreed to buy nearly 500,000 tons of Cuban sugar (then one million tons for each of the following four years) and to pay in Soviet goods like oil. The Soviet machinery helped the industrialisation of the island.
In February Che was allowed to fly alone (he had learnt the basic of flying in Buenos Aires from his uncle, Jorge de la Serna). He loved flying and one of his favourite writers was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who wrote Le petit prince (Che read it in one crap) and some books about his experience as a pilot.

On 4th March La Coubre, a French ship that was carrying Belgian arms to Cuba, exploded in Havana harbour as a result of sabotage - possibly by the CIA. Che ran there and climbed on the burning ship to help in the rescue. 81 Cubans died. On 5th March there was a mass rally to honour the victims. It was the first time Fidel Castro said: Patria o Muerte (Homeland or death) and it was when the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took a photo of Che that became iconic, a symbol of rebellion after his death and that can be seen on many T-shirts and objects today. It is called Guerrillero Heroico.
The funeral was attended by the French intellectuals Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir with whom Che made good friends. After Che's death, Sartre called him "the most complete man of the century".
Meanwhile the CIA started to train Cuban exiles who had volunteered for an invasion of the island. At the same time Che published the first in a series of articles about military tactics 'Consejos al combatiente' in the magazine Verde Olivo, which formed the basis of his future book Guerrilla Warfare. He also wrote ironic political articles and speeches. He also promoted the literacy campaign passionately - to teach every Cuban read and write. He considered education very important and he wanted everyone to get access to it.

In June Che and Aleida moved to Miramar, in the suburb of Havana near the sea.
In July the revolutionary government nationalised the three US oil refineries - without a compensation. The USA refused to buy Cuban sugar - that was bought by the USSR. On 6th August several major US companies in Cuba were also nationalised.
On 19th August Che inaugurated a training course at the Ministry for Public Health. His speech was titled The revolutionary doctor.
By the end of October all the US companies in Cuba were nationalised - the US government imposed a partial trade embargo on the island.

On 21st October Che left for a two-month-long journey on which he visited the countries of the Soviet bloc for the first time: the Soviet Union, the Democratic Republic of Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, China and North Korea. 
From Moscow he arrived in China on 17th November. He made speeches and signed an economic cooperation agreement in the presence of Mao Tse-Tung. Later Che told an anecdote which illustrates his contempt for formalities and his ability of being able to laugh at his asthma.
The Cuban delegation was patiently waiting for Chairman Mao enter and when he did enter, Che had a serious attack of asthma - so serious that it gave him a cardial arrest and he fell on the floor. One of the members of the delegation started pumping his chest, while another one gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Mao, who demanded that protocol and ceremony be strictly observed, entered then turned on his heel and left. After Che recovered, Mao made a second entrance and behaved as if nothing had happened before.
On 24th November Aleida Guevara was born - while Che was in Peking. Che named her after her mother but she was always called Aliusha. He sent his wife an affectionate postcard in which he told her that she always wanted to make him look bad in front of others - he was a little disappointed that his firstborn wasn't a boy. Anyway, he loved Aliusha.

On 1st December Che arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea where he met Kim Il-Sung and they signed scientific, commercial and technical cooperation agreements.
On 7th December the Cuban delegation travelled to Moscow, then to Berlin and to the German Democratic Republic. There his interpreter was Tamara Bunke-Bider, a young German woman who was brought up in Argentina, then she returned to Germany to study. [Later she moved to Cuba, then she was sent to Bolivia to prepare the ground for the contingent, lead by Che in 1966.] In the meanwhile the Pentagon and the CIA were discussing the assassination of Che.

On 3rd January 1961 the USA broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Peru followed - so did other South American countries, depending on the USA. The US government worked hard on portraying Cuba to the world in a negative light.
On 6th January Che appeared on TV to report about his visit to the USSR. He told people how the USSR and the countries of the Soviet block helped Cuba.
On 23rd February the Ministry of Industry was created and Che became the Minister. Three days later he organised a brigade of employees from his new ministry to join him in voluntary work at the Reparto Martí (a slum in the outskirts with terrible poverty).
On 9th April Verde Olivo published Che's article - Cuba, a historical exception or vanguard in the anti-colonial struggle?

On 15th April CIA-planes attacked the airports of Santiago de Cuba and San Antonio de los Baños, and the Cuban air force's base in Havana - 7 people died, 53 people were wounded. The following day on a mass rally to honour the victims, Fidel Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution. The country was put on full alert in anticipation of the impending attack. Che advised to arm the civilian population.
On 17th April about 1,500 Cuban exiles, trained and armed by the CIA, invaded Cuba at Playa Girón, on a site full with snakes, mosquitos and alligators. Castro rushed there immediately and led the defence himself. The Cuban resistance was amazing - even though some of them weren't happy with their leader. Despite the (weak) air support, the invaders surrrendered two days later. Some of them died, 1,209 were captured. Cuba exchanged the prisoners for baby food, medicines, pesticides and other goods.

Che wasn't at the battle - he was in charge of the troops at Pinar del Río that time, to defend that place in case of an invasion. While at his command post, he dropped his revolver that went off, the bullet passed through his cheek and came out under his ear. (Contrary to the regulations, he always carried it without the safety catch on - for this offence he severely punished his men.) A few centimetres difference and the bullet would have blown out his brains.
He was taken to hospital. He refused the anaesthetic, but he was given the antitetanus vaccine that caused a violent allergic reaction, with much swelling. Aleida came and stayed with him.

During May, June and July Che continued to criss-cross the island, visiting factories and giving speeches. He turned himself into living proof that one can do everything for the revolution: working all day and almost all night, then cutting cane on Sundays with the voluntary brigades. He even took his friends to cut cane - and even his wife, who had a home and soon more and more children to look after.

On 2nd August Che left for Montevideo, Uruguay as the head of the Cuban delegation to attend an economic conference at Punta del Este. It was scheduled to launch President Kennedy's programme, Alliance for Progress (offering financial help to the South American countries - instead of letting their industries improve), and also to attempt to isolate Cuba from the rest of Latin America.
Che was not pleased with this plan at all and he made his sincere voice and refusal heard. He emphasized the importance of the economical improvement of the Latin American countries, and he even listed all the US attacks against Cuba. He gave two speeches, on 8th and on 16th of August, and he talked at the press conference, held on 9th and 23rd of August.
Everyone wanted to meet this brave man - and finally he could see his family again as they travelled from Argentina to Uruguay to meet him. On 19th August he made a secret journey to Buenos Aires to meet the Argentine president, Arturo Frondizi. They tried to reach an accomodation with the USA. Che told him that Cuba wanted to remain independent from both the USA and the USSR, and admitted that the Cuban goverment committed some mistakes (the executed traitors became 'heroes', the redistributin of the land failed). While being in Buenos Aires, Che managed to visit his dying aunt, María Luisa on her deathbed - then he rushed back to Montevideo.
When it turned out that Che was in Argentina, the military sent President Frondizi to prison. [In Brasil, President Janio Quadros was forced to resign because he supported Cuban Revolution - that the Brasilian military didn't accept.]

Meanwhile in Cuba on 17th August new banknotes were issued, bearing Che's signature as president of the National Bank. (He signed simply: 'Che' - it made some people in international financial circles furious.)

In December Cuba completed a year-long nationwide literacy campaign. Students had travelled all over the island to teach people how to read and write. (Forty of these "teachers" had been murdered by counter-revolutionaries, but the success of the campaign was still huge: by the end of December 96% of the population could read and write.)
That month Che's book Guerrilla Warfare was published in Cuba and soon translated into Russian, French and English. It was based on the writings of Mao Tse-Tung and the Vietnamese hero, General Vo Nguyen Giap, and on Che's own experiences on the battlefield. The book became the bible of guerrilla movements around the world and it was read by the US Green Berets - who captured Che in Bolivia in 1967.
In the book Che proved that armed struggle could result in victory even against established regimes, armed with modern weaponry and that guerrilla movements based in the jungles and mountains of a country could lead the people to freedom. But he never supported urban guerrilla warfare because there was no possibility of having a vanguard and because it hurt civilians: women, children and other non-combatants.