The Pope's in Cuba?

Interview

JIM LEHRER: Speaking of the work of the country, other news today, the Pope is arriving in Cuba almost as we speak.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Good thing.
JIM LEHRER: All right. Has the time come maybe for the United States to also bury some economic and political hatchets with Cuba?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, I think that our previous policy, the one that we've now and the one we've had through the Republican and Democratic administrations of keeping economic pressure on and 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 a 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.
JIM LEHRER: Have you thought about doing something dramatic -- this is your second term -- getting on airplane and going down there or inviting him to come up here, something like that, just like the Pope has done?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: I'm glad the Pope's 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.
JIM LEHRER: Why is it up to him?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, because look what the Pope is saying. The Pope is saying I hope you will release these political prisoners. Well, 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. The Cuban-American community, I know a lot of people think they have been too hard on this, but they do have the point that there has been no discernible 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 will be able to talk about it a little bit.
JIM LEHRER: Pope, in fact, was interviewed on his plane a little while ago by some reporters and they asked him what messages would you give to the American people about the embargo, and he said change, to change, to change. That would be his message to the American people.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, His Holiness is a very great man, and he, his position on this is identical to that, as far as I know, of every other European leader. And only time will tell if they were right or we were.
JIM LEHRER: Explain to Americans who don't follow the Cuban issue closely 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?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: 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 on a number of different ways to explore other alternatives of dealing with this issue and I wouldn't shut the door on 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 Cuban's policies have done to the change the governmental structures 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.
JIM LEHRER: You don't see anything happening any time soon as a result of the Pope's visit?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well No, I'm very hopeful. I was pleased when I heard he was going. I wanted him to go and I hope it will be a good thing.