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tates and Cuba had decided to take steps tonormalize our relationship. As part of that effort, President Raul Castro and I directed our teamsto negotiate the reestablishment of embassies. Since then, our State Department has workedhard with their Cuban counterparts to achieve that goal. And later this summer, SecretaryKerry will travel to Havana formally to proudly raise the American flag over our embassy oncemore. This is not merely symbolic. With this change, we will be able to substantially increase ourcontacts with the Cuban people. Weamp。t have to be imprisoned by the past. Whensomething isnamp。t think anyone expected that itwould be more than half a century before it reopened. After all, our nations are separated byonly 90 miles, and there are deep bonds of family and friendship between our people. But therehave been very real, profound differences between our governments, and sometimes we allowourselves to be trapped by a certain way of doing things. For the United States, that meant clinging to a policy that was not working. Instead ofsupporting democracy and opportunity for the Cuban people, our efforts to isolate Cubadespite good intentions increasingly had the opposite effect – cementing the status quo andisolating the United States from our neighbors in this hemisphere. The progress that we mar