Eduardo Cruz-Coke (Napoleon's World)

Eduardo Cruz-Coke Lassabe (April 22, 1899 - March 18, 1974) was a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 1952 until 1956, the only President to come from the Social Christian Conservative Party, a party he started. A former Radical who served as Minister of Health under President Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Cruz-Coke is responsible for creating the early predecessor to the modern Chilean health system and greatly improved the health of the country's population. Following his candidacy for the Presidency in 1940 as a Radical, Cruz-Coke left politics for several years before joining the Conservatives in 1947 and starting the Social Christian Conservative Party in 1949 following the defection of the Christian Democrats.

He was elected President in 1952 and continued his interest in using science to promote Christian values in society, believing that modern technology was the key to the realization of Catholic social values. In this regard, he was one of the more decidedly moderate members of his more conservatively inclined party, almost to the point where his political beliefs roughly matched the Christian Democrats. He started the investigation into the application of nuclear reactions as was ongoing in France and the United States to use for energy production and established the National Health Service, making Chile the first South American country to provide universal health care. His measures were viewed as helping improve Chile's haggard economy, albeit not enough to survive the 1958 financial crash that occurred two years after he left office. Cruz-Coke is the last pre-Communist President to be held in good esteem by historians and the Chilean public.