Obama Seeks ‘New Beginning’ With Cuba

Could it be that diplomacy works better than a my-way-or-the-highway approach when dealing with adversarial nations? Judging by President Obama’s apparent progress with the Cuban government, the answer would seem to be yes.

Los Angeles Times:

Progress toward a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations gained unexpected new momentum Friday as leaders of the two countries signaled a willingness to open potentially historic talks on issues that have bitterly divided them since the early days of the Cold War.

President Obama called for a “new beginning” with the island nation, capping a surge of gestures fed by a Cuban President Raul Castro’s declaration Thursday that his country “could be wrong” about its adversarial approach to its powerful northern neighbor.

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AP photo / Marianna Kambon, Summit of the Americas pool

Mending fences: President Barack Obama shakes hands with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez on Friday during the fifth Summit of the Americas, in the Trinidad and Tobago city Port of Spain.