The 7th Summit of the Americas will go down in history as a first as Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama met for a discussion on restoring diplomatic relations.

Obama stated that the Cold War is over between the two nations. He also stated the desire to open up commerce and travel. For his part, Castro said that a great deal of patience would be needed for the negotiations. "Let's not fool ourselves. We have a lot of differences," Castro said. ("History now made, U.S. and Cuba Face Bumpy Road Ahead," Trotta and Spetalnick; Reuters, 4/12/2015)

Patience indeed, as U.S. hostility has gone on for 60 years against the island nation. Cuba was once a market satellite within the U.S. orbit. U.S. business interests had private monopolies in railroads, telecommunications, sugar, tobacco, mining, electricity, etc. ("Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution," Perez, 1995, pgs 195 - 199) With that, the U.S. had influence within Cuba's political affairs. (Perez, pgs 183 - 188, 261, 269 - 273)

Not since JFK has there been a chance to normalize relations; this, despite the Bay of Pigs and installing the embargo under JFK's presidency. Kennedy began to readjust his thinking toward Cuba and found that cooperation was better than confrontation. ("The Untold History of the United States," Stone and Kuznick, 2012, pgs 320 - 323) Obama does have an opportunity to further this goal, that is if the U.S. right and neoliberals don't try to sabotage it. There are GOPers and Democrats who would like to see U.S. hegemony in Cuba again. If the embargo hasn't been able to accomplish this, then lifting it could present an opportunity to flood Cuba with a wave of "free" market forces.

Cuba has been readjusting its economy, ironing out inefficiencies that have been a product of whatever degree of "Soviet-style" control; the latter which had been affected by a major degree of Stalinism.

But these are reasons why patience is needed. It is accurate to say that most Cubans do not want their sovereignty violated again (as in pre-1959 Cuba), and still want the positive gains of the Cuban revolution preserved without the negatives. (Perez, 315 - 325) Human rights in Cuba is an obvious topic. But Castro also made it clear that human rights in the U.S. should also be discussed. The idea is to make it mutual.

Both Obama and Castro should be commended for making this difficult attempt at normalizing relations. Diplomacy is what most people want, but it should be on the basis of mutual respect.

David Starr writes on various issues, both national and international © 2015