re: Read again what I said. - I did.
I'm sorry, but when you say that you've actually "talked to people that have said that they don't remember the U.S. as being harsh masters"? Ok, I don't remember that either, and I lived in Cuba for the most part of the sixties. Of course they don't remember, they didn't live through it, but you, ER, are the one insiduating that the U.S. must have been a harsh master. "Model colonizers"? I think the U.S. was very civil and it took two to tango (trade).
My point is that the U.S. was never a colonizer of Cuba, Puerto Rico or even the Philippines. IF they were, they'd still be in power. You read that one again. On the other hand, Castro is and was never democratically voted to be in the first place. Now there's a hostile takeover.