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Female Speaker: The
President of the United
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States of America:
Barack Obama.
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Narrator: If someone had
said 40 years ago that the
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President of the United
States would be visiting
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Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and
Burma -- and doing so as a
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partner -- nobody would
have believed you: given
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where things were
at that time.
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But that's exactly
what he's done.
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(music)
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Narrator: Each one
of these countries has
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been subjected to U.S.
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sanctions, or U.S.
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pressure, U.S.
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criticism, and that was
kind of the status quo
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for many years, if
not decades.
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President Obama, I think,
came into the office with
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a different approach: he
said in his inaugural
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address that "We will
extend a hand if you
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unclench your fist." And
that was a message to all
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adversarial, and in some
cases, authoritarian regimes.
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(music)
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Male Speaker:
(speaks Spanish)
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Narrator: Cuba: we had been clinging to a failed approach
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for decades, that had made
no progress in bringing
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greater opportunity
to the Cuban people.
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In fact, we had isolated
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ourselves through our approach.
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President Obama
decided early in his
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administration that we
needed to test engagement.
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(applause)
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The President:
Today as the President of the
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United States of
America I offer the Cuban
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people, "El saludo
de paz."
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(applause)
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Narrator: We said that we
were imposing an embargo,
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and isolating Cuba on
behalf of the Cuban people.
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That's not the policy they
wanted, and we could tell
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that when we were there,
because they were so
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filled with excitement
over the possibility of a
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better relationship
with the United States.
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(music)
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Male Speaker:
(speaks Spanish)
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(music)
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Female Speaker: If we want
democracy, we have to dare
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to live according to the
principles of democracy.
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Narrator: Burma has had a
remarkable transformation
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while President Obama
has been in office.
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From a closed,
military-led government to
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a democratic transition in
which Aung San Suu Kyi and
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her party won a free
election, and she'll be
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welcomed here at the White
House in September as a
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leader of that government.
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Female Speaker: Our people
are very appreciative of
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everything that has been
done by congress, and by
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administration to support
our democratic movement.
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We look forward to better,
closer relations, and
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perhaps now, a little bit
more on the business side
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now that we're
opening up an economy.
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(music)
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Narrator: The
crowds in Vietnam, were
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actually probably
the biggest.
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I think we had 2 million
people just on the
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motorcade route in
Ho Chi Min city.
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The thing I remember the
most about Vietnam is we
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did a town hall with our
young Southeast-Asian leaders.
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Female Speaker:
Barack Obama.
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(applause)
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Narrator: And
here are all these young,
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dynamic people, and
they're interested in
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entrepreneurship and the
environment, and there was
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a Vietnamese rapper who
got up, and the President
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asked her to rap.
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Audience Member:
Vietnamese or English?
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The President:
In Vietnamese.
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Audience Member: (raps
Vietnamese)
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Narrator: In that moment when that woman
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stood up and rapped to
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the President of the
United States, you know I
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think you're struck by how
much things have changed
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since the time helicopters
took off from our embassy
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in Saigon in 1975.
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(music)
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Narrator: I hope
the President's trip to
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Laos is the beginning of a
new relationship between
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our two countries.
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That relationship has
been defined by war.
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We dropped more bombs on
Laos than all of Europe in
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World War Two, during
the Vietnam War.
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Those bombs litter
the country.
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We can demonstrate once
more that the United
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States can face its own
history, and can confront
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it in a way that helps
people, but also allows us
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to build a new partnership
with a country that's in a
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very important
part of the world.
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The President: Well if you
look at what we've done in
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Cuba, and Myanmar, and
Laos, and Vietnam, these
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are countries that were
historic enemies, and it
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grows out of the vestiges
of the Cold War, but a new
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generation of people all
around the world are ready
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to turn the chapter and
we have to meet them, and
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work with them.
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And if we want to deal
with issues from climate
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change to wildlife
trafficking to dealing
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with terrorism, we need
the cooperation of
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everybody, and that's part
of what we've been able to
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accomplish, I think, over
the past seven, eight
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years is open up places
that previously were
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closed and engage people
in ways that will pay huge
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dividends in the future.
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(music)
