More than a half century after it closed, the United States has reopened its embassy in Cuba. Present at the ceremony Aug. 14 to celebrate the reopening was John Kerry, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the island country in 70 years, who called the flag-raising a "historic moment." He praised the progress that the two countries have made in their relationship, while reminding all concerned that much work remains to be done.
Reopening the embassy has been the dream of many people in the U.S., although there were radically divergent visions under which this would occur. For some, it would mean the collapse of the authoritarian Castro regime and the end of rule by the Communist Party of Cuba.
For others, it would signal the return of common sense and the end of policies that failed to bring about meaningful change for over half a century. For the first group, that second vision looked like appeasement and abandonment of Cuba's long-suffering democrats. Not surprisingly, critics have vowed to slow, if not stymie, the normalization process.