U.S. and Cuba Have Highest-Level Meeting in Decades - Blythe Taylor

On April 9^th, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez meet in Panama. It is the highest-level meeting between the U.S. and Cuba in more than half a century. Their meeting comes a day before the Summit of the Americas. According to U.S. officials, the meeting between Kerry and Rodriguez goes well, lasting for at least two hours. On April 11^th, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro meet at the Summit of the Americas in Panama. It is the first time the countries' leaders have a face-to-face meeting in more than 50 years.

Tensions between the two nations reached their peak in 1962, after U.S. reconnaissance aircraft photographed the Soviet construction of intermediate-range missile sites. The discovery led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. During that time the threat of an invasion was very real. As a child we had air raid drills in school in case of an attack from the Communists. Putting a missile site that close to the United States was a present danger.

According to news reports, Obama and Castro vowed to open embassies in both countries. "Our governments will continue to have differences," Obama says. "At the same time, we agreed that we can continue to take steps forward that advance our mutual interests."

I think that this could go either really well or terribly wrong going off of our past with Cuba. Hopefully Both presidents stick to their statements about having an open mind going to the meeting and hopefully will be beneficial to each nation.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/11/politics/panama-obama-castro-meeting/