President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro sealed their landmark deal Tuesday in an almost hour-long phone call, capping 18 months of secret diplomacy spurred on by a personal appeal from Pope Francis to end Cuba's isolation.
It was the first time leaders of the two nations had substantive discussions since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s, according to a White House official. It was not, however, the first time Obama and Castro had spoken.
Obama had shaken hands and exchanged brief words with Castro at a December 2013 memorial ceremony in Johannesburg for South African leader Nelson Mandela.