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