U.S. to Normalize Relations with Cuba
Thursday, December 18th, 2014December 18, 2014
The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century, U.S. President Barack Obama announced yesterday in a nationally televised statement from the White House. The agreement to set aside more than 50 years of hostility and forge a new relationship between the United States and Cuba was negotiated during 18 months of secret talks fostered by Pope Francis and largely hosted by Canada.
On December 16, President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro of Cuba spoke for more than 45 minutes by telephone. “We agreed to end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” stated President Obama. [The deal will] “begin a new a chapter among the nations of the Americas” [and move beyond] “rigid policy that’s rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.” The warming between the two countries came with the release of an American contractor, Alan P. Gross, who has held in a Cuban prison for five years. Cuba exchanged the contractor for three Cuban spies who had been in an American prison since 2001.
The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961 after the government of Fidel Castro had seized various U.S.-owned assets in Cuba and nationalized them. The United States had placed an economic embargo on Cuba three months earlier. The embargo banned nearly all U.S. exports to the island nation. It has been in place for 53 years. Before the boycott, Cuba–which is only 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Key West, Florida–was a favorite destination of American tourists.
Additional World Book articles:
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- The Cold War’s Last Front: The United States and Cuba
- Cuba 1960 (a Back in Time article)
- Cuba 1961 (a Back in Time article)
- Cuba 1962 (a Back in Time article)