Barack Obama

====Relations with Cuba====
{{Main|Cuban thaw}}
[[File:Handshake between the President and Cuban President Raúl Castro.jpg|thumb|President Obama meeting with Cuban President [[Raúl Castro]] in Panama, April 2015|alt=Photo of Obama shaking hands with the Cuban president]]

Since the spring of 2013, secret meetings were conducted between the United States and Cuba in the neutral locations of Canada and [[Vatican City]].<ref>{{cite news |last1 = Warren |first1 = Strobel |title = Secret talks in Canada, Vatican City led to Cuba breakthrough |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-reconstruction-idUSKBN0JV2DM20141217 |work = Reuters |access-date = December 21, 2014 }}</ref> The Vatican first became involved in 2013 when Pope Francis advised the U.S. and Cuba to [[prisoner exchange|exchange prisoners]] as a gesture of goodwill.<ref>{{cite news |last1 = Morello |first1 = Carol |last2 = DeYoung |first2 = Karen |title = Secret U.S.-Cuba diplomacy ended in landmark deal on prisoners, future ties |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/secret-diplomacy-with-cuba-ended-in-breakthrough-deal/2014/12/17/c51b3ed8-8614-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html |newspaper = The Washington Post |access-date = December 21, 2014 }}</ref> On December 10, 2013, Cuban President [[Raúl Castro]], in a significant public moment, greeted and shook hands with Obama at the [[Death of Nelson Mandela|Nelson Mandela memorial service]] in [[Johannesburg]].<ref>{{Cite news | last1=Roberts | first1=Dan | last2=Luscombe | first2=Richard | title=Obama shakes hands with Raúl Castro for first time at Mandela memorial | newspaper=The Guardian | date=December 10, 2013 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/10/obama-shakes-hands-raul-castro-mandela-memorial | access-date=February 15, 2017}}</ref>

In December 2014, after the secret meetings, it was announced that Obama, with Pope Francis as an intermediary, had negotiated a restoration of relations with Cuba, after nearly sixty years of détente.<ref>{{cite news |first = Barbie Latza |last = Nadeau |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/17/the-pope-s-diplomatic-miracle-ending-the-u-s-cuba-cold-war.html |title = The Pope's Diplomatic Miracle: Ending the U.S.–Cuba Cold War |work = The Daily Beast |date = December 17, 2014 |access-date = December 18, 2014 }}</ref> Popularly dubbed the [[Cuban Thaw]], ''[[The New Republic]]'' deemed the Cuban Thaw to be "Obama's finest foreign policy achievement."<ref>{{cite news |magazine=[[The New Republic]] |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/121522/cuba-obamas-biggest-foreign-policy-success |title=The Cuban Thaw Is Obama's Finest Foreign Policy Achievement to Date |first=Joel |last=Gillin |date=April 13, 2015 }}</ref> On July 1, 2015, President Obama announced that formal diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States would resume, and embassies would be opened in Washington and [[Havana]].<ref>{{cite news |title = Obama announces re-establishment of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic ties |url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/politics/obama-note-to-castro-reestablish-ties/ |publisher = CNN |access-date = July 1, 2015 }}</ref> The countries' respective "interests sections" in one another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on July 20 and August 13, 2015, respectively.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article27862504.html |title = United States and Cuba reestablish diplomatic relations |first = Mimi |last = Whitefield |work = The Miami Herald |date = July 20, 2015 |access-date = July 19, 2015 }}</ref> Obama visited Havana, Cuba for two days in March 2016, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to arrive since [[Calvin Coolidge]] in 1928.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Julie Hirschfeld Davis |first2=Damien |last2=Cave |date = March 21, 2016 |title = Obama Arrives in Cuba, Heralding New Era After Decades of Hostility |work = The New York Times |page = A1 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/world/americas/obama-arrives-in-cuba.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320203029/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/world/americas/obama-arrives-in-cuba.html |archive-date=March 20, 2016 |url-access=limited |url-status=live }}</ref>