what s happening in the western hemisphere is a priority for him. he was more than happy to work on this. pope john paul ii called for cuba to be open to the world and the world to be open to cuba. and that was a very clear signal to both cuba and the united states to work on this. and, you know, the pope is really responding to the concerns of the bishops in cuba who would like to see diplomatic relations restored and especially to see the embargo ended. father thomas, thank you very much for being on. you re welcome. coming up on breaking news tonight, u.s. investigators telling cnn that north korea is responsible for the hacking attack on sony. this is after the company cancelled the release of the movie that started it all, new details next. surface pro 3. mac: hey what s that, is it a kickstand? surface: touchscreen too, it s pretty slick, man. mac: it comes apart i see. surface: it s got a usb.
what have people been saying today? little surreal this morning. there have been celebrations. tears, a little surreal this morning when the news broke, andersen. still was over two hours until cubans heard about it. through the tightly controlled state media. wasn t until noon. castro took to the airwaves. in a speech to the nation. he talked about the respect he felt to president obama. towards, towards, the necessity of a better relationship moving forward. these are word that his brother, fidel castro never used. cubans were taken aback by that. taken aback by the prisoner swap. raul castro talking about 53 political prisoners released here. in cuba. at the request of the u.s. and a closer relationship moving forward.
to assassination castro with a poison pen. in october 1962, the missile crisis. fearing an invasion from the u.s., allowed soviet missiles on the soil causing panic. u2 spy plane spotted built by the soviet union. the showdown of the united nations, u.s. demanded their removal. it will be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile, launch from cuba or against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack. reporter: the soviet union blinked and the missiles were removed. almost two decades later in 1980, the cuban government allowed people to leave the country without a permit. nearly 125,000 cubans fled the island and arrived by boat 90 miles away in florida. at first, the u.s. welcomed the refugees but the sheer numbers overwhelmed facilities and stopped giving them asylum. boiled again around a 6-year-old boy named elian gonzalez rescued
the future of cuba. one thing i agree with marco rubio who deeply disagree is we need to see a free and democratic cuba. president obama said we haven t been successfully getting there with the policy we ve been following for the last 55 plus years. let s try something different and let s try something that s been consistent with what marco rubio calls an illusion and a lie is the basis of democrat and republican since the end of world war ii. the greater commerce, greater economic interaction is part of the path to opening societies that clearly don t want to be open. i m under no illusions cuban authorities don t want to open up but playing the same game for 55 years isn t a way to achieve that. what do you say to that, 55 years has attempted to change the direction of the regime and failed to do that. if toppling the castro regime is the objective, that wasn t achieved but they ve been on the ropes.
form. we know, the last time, similar case was with the five chinese military hackers and they filed charges against them. right now we don t know, what we are going to see from, from the department of justice. when they make this announcement anderson. all right, pamela, more on this shortly. thank you very much. cuba at the center of a crisis. could have ended the world as we know it. no hyping that. 52 years ago. the united states and soviet union, came close to nuclear war. since then, both parties tried to isolate the country. one, john f. kennedy tried to kill off the leader, fidel castro. after secret negotiations and oval office phone call yesterday to work out details with raul castro, president obama announced the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with havana. speaking with abc s david muir, mr. obama talked about that call.