Resuming relations with Cuba — CBS News poll

As Cuba and the US are about to officially resume diplomatic ties for the first time in 54 years, 58 percent of Americans favor re-establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, while just 24 percent oppose.

APA reports quoting BBC that just after midnight on Monday, the diplomatic missions of each country became full embassies.

The Cuban government is preparing to reopen its embassy in Washingtonon Monday with the original Cuban flag that was taken down in 1961, when the two nations cut off ties. The building will host a formal ceremony this morning, during which Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his counterpart, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, to address reporters.

The flag-raising will be part of a daylong series of events commemorating the opening of a full Cuban embassy in Washington.

The announcement followed a half-century of enmity, a crippling economic embargo, Central Intelligence Agency assassination plots and a Cuban missile crisis. “Greetings from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba”.

Since Cuba and the US broke off relations in 1961, the U.S. Interest Section building in Havana, officially at least, was considered Swiss territory.

In pre-dawn hours, the Cuban flag will be hung quietly in the lobby of the State Department alongside those of other nations with which the USA has diplomatic relations.

When asked if they, personally, would like to visit Cuba if travel restrictions were lifted, 48 percent of Americans say they would, and 49 percent would not.

Ahead of the meeting, Rodriguez will preside over a ceremony to mark the upgrading of the Cuban interests section to a full embassy.

But instead of improving relations with Cuba, the Interests Section often served as a lightning rod for confrontation.

The USA “wants to move beyond a Cold War-era approach to one of constructive engagement as a way to support and empower the Cuban people”, analyst Ted Piccone from the Brookings Institution said. That will be interesting to observe as it will signal America’s posture going forward.

“We don’t have to be imprisoned by the past”, Obama said then.

Washington also wants to ensure the return of several American fugitives wanted in the United States.

But negative publicity over the incident led Cuban officials to declare it all had been a mistake, since the dog really belonged to Huddleston’s husband. “Fidel said he would give my husband’s dog a pardon”. When he was governor Bush referred to state government as “Mount Tallahassee”.

The Cuban government responded by erecting a “forest” of 138 flag poles to block out the offending American messages. Eventually diplomacy won out, and both the flags and ticker were taken down.

“That kind of rhetoric has less and less resonance”, he said.

The remarkable turnaround in relations between the communist authorities in Cuba and the USA administration after five decades of hostility has happened at break-neck speed.