Page 28 - Castros News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Political prisoners and others in cuba. why give any kind of recognition to the leaders there? >> well, the thing is the embargo hasn't worked. nobody wants the castros to be gone more than i am. no one is anti-communist more than i am. in the 1970s we thought it was a terrible idea for nixon to open up trade with red china. but you know what, it turns out that it has been good. it has improved things. it's not perfect. but it's much better to trade than to have war. and i think what nixon did opening china probably was the right thing to do. and i think we have a better chance of defeating ca...

Isolationism or engagement? and i think really engaging nations -- look, for seven years we were at logger heads with the russians and we still are to a degree, yet we have an embassy there and we do trade. we do trade with cuba. it only goes one way. they don't sell anything to us, we do sell some stuff to them. but i think trade does draw us together. trade makes us much less likely to fight. we trade with china. look what happened after the vietnam war. one of the leaders opening up vietnam was john mccain. yes, we did fight with them, we lost 50,000 soldiers, but trade is a good way to imp...

And the castro brothers have succeeded to end decades of isolation and get nothing in return. it sends a signal to the world that we can be pushed around. nine u.s. presidents stood up to fidel castro and barack obama blinked. so if you're watching this, in tehran let's say, what are you thinking? are you thinking i better get to the table and make some concessions with obama administration in the nuclear talks. no, you're thinking if the castro brothers can get something for nothing so can i. same thing in russia. >> but these earlier presidents they stood up to the castros. but it was earlie...

What they're talking about. they know what they've read and they know what people who used to live there a long time ago have told them about it, but they never have had the experience you have had of being in cuba, of studying the culture closely and ultimately writing a book about it as you and bi bill leo grand have done. what are they missing by not having gone there? >> this is not the cuba of 1959, obviously. you see the pictures of the old cars and everything. well, yes, you see the old cars there, but you also see mercedes and a lot of kias. you know, cuba has evolved. cuba has changed...

Relations doesn't mean you're giving in. it means you're going to deal with this country just deal with lots of regimes around the world with whom we disagree about the way they run their countries. >> what did we get? what did the united states get out of the deal? >> well, i think what we get, for example, are popularity in latin america has gone up. >> oh. >> because -- >> miss congeniality. i'll take it. what? >> okay. and it also -- okay. and it also, i think, gets us in tune with the rest of the world who wanted to know why you're so fixated on this. let's get on with it and let's have n...