It is about time for American Cuban rapprochement and Obama was just the right man to do it, with the help of Raol Castro.  As for me, I’m going to Cuba, if not this year, next year or the year after. Be sure of that.  I’m excited to see the American Cuban rapprochement develop.

You should get just as excited as I am.  Cuba is right on our doorstep,

93 miles to be exact.  Yet for 50 years it’s been official American policy to consider Cuba to be an outlaw nation.  But we’ve had that all wrong just as we had it all wrong in Vietnam. Where over 60,000 American soldiers died as Americans killed over 1,000,000 Vietnamese.  As their Christian duty to save the world from the Communist scourge.  But what a difference forty years can make.  Communist, Capitalistic, or whatever we choose to call Vietnam today, it is rapidly been emerging as a prime trading partner of the U.S. and staunch political ally in Asia.

The main problem with American Cuban rapprochement is back in 1959 the United States chose the wrong side.

When it ignored Fidel Castro’s pleas for American assistance while he was consolidating his Revolution in Cuba.  The U.S. ignored Casto’s pleas for assistance so Fidel had only one choice.  Which was to turn to the Soviet Union.   Had we stood with Fidel, the entire course of Cuban-American relations would have taken a different course over the past 50 years.

There would have been no Cuban Missile crisis, no bay of Pigs–Cuba would never have been listed as a pariah nation.

Instead, Cuba would have become one of the prime tourist destinations for Americans seeking beautiful scenery and pristine beaches right on our doorstep.  The Cuban economy would have prospered while the whole course of American–Latin American relations would have turned out so much better for all concerned.

The same thing happened in Vietnam. When Ho Chi Minh turned to the United States for the support of a country he deeply admired.

And just as we did with Castro, we turned our back on Ho.  So he turned to the Soviet Union instead.

Once again, the result was a complete travesty of injustice with devastating results for both Vietnam and the United States.   Vietnam is still Communist, at least on paper, but now it’s one of the good guys.  So if you go to Vietnam now, the Vietnamese will consider you to be one of the good guys too.  After all, I’ve traveled to Vietnam four times.    Where I found the Vietnamese to be some of the most helpful friendly people in Asia.

But leave it to Obama to take the lead in the U.S. to get those doors open again.  I expected no less from the man.  Vietnam has finally become one of the good guys. I expect in a few years Cuba will become one of our most steadfast trading partners. Just as I believe Americans will finally recognize Obama as one of America’s greatest presidents.  It just takes a little time for History to sort these things out.

To continue reading more about the recent American Cuban rapprochement you might want to read the following from Wikipedia