In Che's eyes, the Soviet method was to reach socialism using the tools of capitalism. And he didn't like it.
Che's New Man would understand that he should not work for the accumulation of material goods - that it would be his selfless moral duty to work for society, and that society would in turn look after him and his family. To create this New Man, the revolution erased illiteracy and provided a comprehensive health system. [Che believed in this so much that that is why he wrote to Fidel Castro in his farewell letter that he didn't worry about leaving no fortune for his family because the revolution would look after them.)

In February Che spent five days at the Ciro Redondo sugar mill, driving a cane cutter. He worked twelve hours a day, then he checked the machine. Then he went to close the National Sugar Industry plenary session in Camagüey, where he spoke about the mechanisation, production and socialist emulation. He thought it would be the instrument for the development of the people's conscience that would motivate them to work productively, in turn creating greater riches and welfare for everyone. He had taken responsibility for overall production on the island and was determined to make a success of it.

Che's mother, Celia, left Havana for Europe in March. On her journey home, she was arrested in Buenos Aires under the fabricated charge of smuggling communist propaganda. She was taken to prison.
Celia Guevara, the third child of Che and Aleida, was born on 14th June 1963. She was named after Che's mother who was still in prison. Family and friends were doing everything to set her free, a quick court was set up in the prison and before the military could realise what had happened, Celia was released and arrived in Montevideo in secret.

At the end of June Che flew to Algiers to represent Cuba at the ceremonies to commemorate the first anniversary of Algerian independence from France and to hold meetings with Prime Minister Ahmed Ben Bella. While he was away, the USA declared a total embargo on Cuba.
Back in Havana, at the end of September, Che made a speech at the closing ceremony of the first international meeting of architecture students since the Revolution. He said:
"This generation has to pay the price of glory with sacrifice. It has to sacrifice itself day by day to build tomorrow with its efforts... Your obligations extend beyond the Cuban frontiers; the obligation to spread the ideological flame of the Revolution throughout every corner of the Americas, throughout every corner of the world where our voice is heard."

On 22nd November President Kennedy was killed - Lee Harvey Oswald, who allegedly shot him, was a Communist, had a Russian wife and had visited Cuba. The speculations started at once - maybe Fidel Castro, the Soviets, the Miami Cubans wanted Kennedy to be dead?

Che had never given up on his idea of returning to Argentina to lead an insurrection against the right-wing military men. (Before leaving for Cuba, Fidel Castro promised him that he would let Che go to start a revolution in Argentina and that he would even help in this campaign.) Preparations started in 1963: in secret, future guerrillas were searched, interviewed and trained - by Alberto Granado, Jorge Ricardo Masetti and others. During the missile crisis, Che took the Argentine recruits with him to Pinar del Río, then the men were sent for further training to Algeria. On 21st June 1963 a five-man vanguard of  Ejército Guerrillero del Pueblo (Guerrilla Army of the People) entered Argentina illegally, then new recruits joined them.
Masetti fought under the nom de guerre Segundo (the Second One), which alluded to his position as second in command to Che Guevara, who was primer comandante (First Commander). But the campaign ended in a tragic way. Guerrillas were captured and killed or died of hunger. Masetti's body has never been found but he was probably killed too.

In December Che gave the closing speech at the Week of Solidarity with the people of South Vietnam.

1964 started with a reception at the Palace of the Revolution, followed by a mass rally at Plaza de la Revolución the next day.
In January Che signed a technical aid protocol with the representatives of the USSR, then at the end of the month he accompanied Fidel Castro to a farm at Oro de Guisa where they tested Soviet sugar cane-cutting machines.

On 3rd February Che flew his Cessna to Guanahacabibes in Pinar del Río where he had established an experimental correction centre. Officials of his ministry who committed offences undermining the progress of the revolution agreed to spend some time there at their own will. (The establishment was self-sufficient, chairs, honey and wax was made for sale.) Who proved that they had learnt the lesson could return to work. Those who didn't volunteer could not work for Che anymore.

Che became famous not only in South America, but also in the whole world. He often received a lot of letters. One day María Rosario Guevara from Morocco wrote to him asking if they were relatives. Che replied to her on 20th February:
"I don't think you and I are very closely related, but if you are capable of trembling with indignation each time an injustice is committed in the world, we are comrades and that is more important." The phrase "If you are capable..." is a quote from José Martí, the Cuban poet and revolutionary hero, whom Che admired and often quoted. 

In March Che was the head of the Cuban delegation at the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva. In his speech, made on 25th March, he said: "The only way to solve the problems now besetting humanity is to eliminate completely the exploitation of dependent countries by developed capitalist countries..."
He also castigated the assembly for the absence of North Korea, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of Germany and for the presence of apartheid South Africa. He said that all the participants had blood on their hands: the blood of Patrice Lumumba, the radical Prime Minister of the Congo, who had been assassinated in 1961 in the presence of UN troops.

After returning to Havana, on 26th June Che made his closing speech at the Ministry of Industry's tribute to cane-cutters: "Voluntary work on the land is deepening the awareness of all workers, and I think it is especially important for our white-collar workers, because it is the only way they can genuinely experience and understand the problems involved."

On 15th August Che received a communist work certificate and badge from a worker called Félix Arnet-Silveira for completing 240 hours of voluntary work during the half-year. Moments earlier he had given Arnet-Silveira a diploma recording his achievement as the most outstanding worker with 1,600 hours of voluntary work.
That month Bolivia broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba.

In October Che went to the USSR to represent Cuba officially at the festivities for the 47th anniversary of the 1917 revolution. He spent there two weeks from 4th to 19th November. He also met his friend, the astronaut Yuri Gagarin. 
Back in Cuba, in his tribute to the memory of those who fell in the Santiago uprising of 30th November 1956, Che said: "Cuba's name is the emblem of what can be achieved by the revolutionary struggle and the belief that the world can be a better place; it is the ideal for which it is worth risking one's life, even unto death, on the battlefields of every continent in the world."

In early December Che went to New York as the head of the Cuban delegation at the United Nations' 19th Annual General Assembly on 11th December.
His daring and honest speech made people of Latin America wake up, made them realise that independence can be and must be reached. Still representatives from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama, and the USA attacked his speech. Che expressed his opinion that he would die for the independence of any Latin American country, without asking for and expecting anything in return.
In front of the UN building a lot of angry, anti-Castro demonstators were waiting for Che and some tried to assassinate him - twice. A woman attacked him with a knife while he was leaving the building, but his bodyguards stopped her; and some people aimed a missile at the building from a boat, but it dropped into the river, not far from the place it had been launched.
After leaving New York, Che travelled to Africa via Canada and Ireland - he spent there three months. He visited Algeria, Mali, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea, Ghana, Dahomey, Tanzania and Egypt, and he gave speeches.