BARACK Obama hadn’t yet been born when, 55 years ago next month, his nation’s government mounted an attempt to invade Cuba barely two years after guerillas under the command of Fidel Castro and his comrades toppled the US-sponsored dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

He was still in his nappies when the Cuban Missile Crisis came close to triggering a nuclear conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. That was the period when Washington tightened the sanctions it had already imposed on the island into an all-embracing economic embargo that has remained in place ever since.

The thaw has been a long time coming. At a joint press conference in Havana with his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, President Obama said that the embargo, which had harmed both sides, would be lifted sooner or later — although he couldn’t say exactly when, given it requires a congressional vote. Inevitably, it also depends on the policy choices of Obama’s successor in the White House.