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THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT [excerpt] Q All right. Speaking of the work of the country, other news today, the Pope is arriving in Cuba almost as we speak. THE PRESIDENT: Good thing. Q All right. Has the time come maybe for the United States to also bury some economic and political hatchets with Cuba? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that our previous policy, the one that we've had now and the one we've had through Republican and Democratic administrations of keeping economic pressure on and in denying the legitimacy of the Cuban government, has been a good policy. I have made it clear from the day I got here that we would be prepared to respond to a substantial effort at political or economic opening by Cuba. And we have, as you know, a system for communicating with each other. Nothing would please me greater than to see a new openness there that would justify a response on our part, and I would like to work on it, and I think Mr. Castro knows that. I've tried to proceed in good faith here. Q Have you thought about doing something dramatic? I mean, this is your second term -- getting on an airplane and going down, or inviting him to come up here, something like that -- just like what the Pope is doing? THE PRESIDENT: I'm glad the Pope is going there. I hope that we will have some real progress toward freedom and opening there, and I'll work on it. But that's still mostly up to Mr. Castro. Q Why is it up to him? THE PRESIDENT: Well, because -- look what the Pope is saying. The Pope is saying, I hope you will release these political prisoners. You know, no American President getting on an airplane and going down there or having him come up here is going to deal with that. I mean, the Cuban American community, I know a lot of people think they've been too hard on this, but they do have the point that there has been no discernable change in the climate of freedom there. And I hope that the Pope's visit will help to expand freedom and I hope that after that we'll be able to talk about it a little bit. Q The Pope, in fact, was interviewed on his plane a while ago by some reporters, and they asked him, what message would you give to the American people about the embargo? And he said, to change, to change, to change. That would be his message to the American people. THE PRESIDENT: His Holiness is a very great man, and his position on this is identical to that, as far as I know, of every other European leader. And only time will tell whether they were right or we were. Q Explain to Americans who don't follow the Cuban issue very carefully why Cuba is different, say, than China, a communist country, North Korea, a communist country. Vietnam -- we had a war with Vietnam, as we did with Korea, and in some ways China as well. We have relations with them. Why is Cuba different? THE PRESIDENT: I think Cuba is different in no small measure because of the historic legacy we have with them going back to the early '60s. I think it's different because it's the only communist dictatorship in our hemisphere, a sort of blot on our neighborhood's commitment to freedom and openness. And a lot of Americans have suffered personal losses there of significant magnitude. And I think, as a practical matter, we probably think we can have a greater influence through economic sanctions in Cuba than we can in other places. Now, I have worked over the last five years in a number of different ways to explore other alternatives in dealing with this issue, and I wouldn't shut the door on any other alternative. But I believe that our denial of legitimacy to the government and our economic pressure has at least made sure that others didn't go down that path, and that now I think it's one of the reasons that every country in this hemisphere is a democracy and a market economy except for Cuba. I think a lot of people forget what the impact of our policy toward Cuba and what the highlighting of the Cubans' policies have done to change the governmental structures in other countries in our neighborhood. So I'm hoping -- nobody in the world would be happier than me to see a change in Cuba and a change in our policy before I leave office. But we have to have both; we just can't have one without the other. Q You don't see anything happening anytime soon as a result of the Pope's visit? THE PRESIDENT: Oh, no, I'm very hopeful. I was very pleased when I heard he was going. I wanted him to go and I hope it will be a good thing.
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