<HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#80ffff">Why should Castro and  dictatorship be credited with Cuba's good marks in various social, educational, and medical areas?  Cuba had good marks in all those areas pre-Revolution. "In part because of Cuba's close economic integration with the United States before 1959, Cuba's economic and social indicators ranked among the highest in the world.  By 1957, Cuba had an advanced health sector providing the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America (13th lowest in the world), and the third highest number of physicians and dentists per capita, comparable to the Netherlands and higher than in the United Kingdom and Finland. Cuba also ranked among the highest in Latin America at that time in terms of literacy rate, food consumption (daily calories consumed), and access to mass media." http://www.cubafacts.com/Economy/econmain.htm#Cuba%20in%20the%201950s </HTML>