It was played and replayed on North American television and hailed as an historic moment. At the funeral for Nelson Mandela in South Africa, U.S. President Barack Obama did something no American president has done in a very long time: He shook hands with the Cuban President Raul Castro.

To most people, it was an insignificant act, but some people were deeply offended that the most powerful leader in the world would do such a thing. Still some others, including myself, thought it could be the beginning of better things.

To understand the significance of the simple handshake, you would have to look back more than 50 years to 1961 and before. At that time, it was the height of the Cold War, and the U.S. was squaring off against the Soviet Union and the spread of communism. People were digging bomb shelters and stockpiling food. The magazine Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists would publish the Doomsday Clock to show the threat level of the Red Menace. For the most part, it stood at anywhere between two and 12 minutes to midnight.

With both the Soviets and the Americans armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, many people expected humanity to be wiped out, and soon. In Cuba, Fidel Castro built an underground tunnel from his home beneath an adjacent road to the beach so he could go for a swim without being seen. In the U.S., survivalist groups trained with their rifles and shotguns so that one day, should the Soviets attack, they could be the foundation for a new generation.

Into this incendiary atmosphere came the Cuban revolution and the installation of a communist government under Fidel Castro, Raul Castro's brother. The Doomsday Clock ticked even closer to midnight as Fidel Castro nationalized all U.S. companies in the country. Americans, who had vacationed on Cuba's beaches and traded with Cubans for years, were suddenly prohibited from going there.

Likewise, Cubans were banned from going to the U.S., a situation that for the most part still exists. The U.S. still maintains a garrisoned prison on the east end of the island called Guantanamo Bay, but other than that, there is almost no traffic heading there from the U.S. Cubans who sneak out of their country in leaky boats to try to live the American Dream have often been shot at or sent back. Even now, they must actually make landfall in the U.S. before they can be granted political asylum.

When I was in Cuba several years ago, there was a ballistic missile sitting on the waterfront near Havana that was capable of reaching about half of the continental U.S. We were told that, although now deactivated, it is the real thing, left over from when the Soviets were shipping arms to Cuba in spite of an American naval blockade.

So what's in a handshake? Obama said the gesture was not a big deal but seemed appropriate. Raul Castro, in Cuba, has said he hopes the two countries can establish a civilized bilateral relationship in which both sides respect their differences. Castro has gotten the situation absolutely right.

The key word he said was "respect." The U.S. has respectful, even cordial, relationships with other communist countries, such as China. Especially in China's case, they even do a lot of business together. Although only 90 miles from the U.S., Cuba has little that the U.S. needs, so there has been little incentive for the U.S. to change its hostile attitude toward its island neighbor even as the original fears have faded. But opportunities exist, if the two sides can get their act together, for at least some trade. The streets of Havana, still home to 60-year-old American automobiles, could certainly use some new cars.

Castro's words amount to a challenge to Obama. Communism has become a reality in a number of countries, while democracy is still alive and well in the U.S. and elsewhere and will likely continue for the foreseeable future. The Cold War is long over, and it is time to consign the Cuban crisis to the dustbin of history.

Can the U.S. break with recent history? A brief handshake and a suggestion that the two countries respect each other may offer a faint glimmer of hope that better things will follow.

Brad Franklin is a former political reporter, newscaster and federal government employee in Canada. He is a regular columnist for China's English Salon magazine and lives on Vancouver Island.

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