HAVANA (AP) -- Brushing off decades of distrust, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro shook hands Monday in Havana's Palace of the Revolution, a remarkable moment for two countries working to put the bitterness of their Cold War-era enmity behind them.
Obama and Castro stood together as a Cuban military band played the national anthems of Cuba and the United States - stunning sounds in a country where resistance to the U.S. has been part of the national mission for decades. Greeting each other warmly, the two leaders inspected an honor guard before sitting down for a series of meetings.
Whether Obama and Castro could use the meeting, one of the first since Cuba's 1959 revolution and the only one in Cuba, to further the ambitious diplomatic experiment they started 15 months ago was an open question, infusing Obama's historic trip to Cuba with uncertainty and tension for both governments.