And the US deals with worse players than the Cubans. The Saudi's come to mind.

every thing he says or does. I am glad he is stepping into place and making the strong moves, Congress does not appear to be willing or able to make strong moves.

Not sure what you mean by "A country 1/3 the size of California has just presented itself to the USA."
Its the USA that has maintained the standoff, not Cuba. Cuba has always been "presenting itself" since 1959.

Also, without real changes in the US's travel ban on Americans, then Cuba's tourism industry isn't going to change much .. the rest of the world already has regular relations with Cuba, most notably, tourism.

the size of california in potential has just appeared on the horizon“. Did not mean to imply Cuba didn‘t want to trade. But they have changed the rules to more open economics, and that helped a great deal to get this agreement.

It's terrific if this works out well for the Cuban people, and Cuban workers in particular. But I suggest that following the money remains a useful tool for understanding this action.

Cuba's growing trade deficits demand domestic development. It's having trouble surviving.

The new rules to attract foreign money include an 8 year exemption on taxes on profits, eliminates the tax on labor costs (which helped pay for worker social safety nets) and allows 100 percent foreign ownership.

The US investment industry clearly wants a piece of that, and the US investment industry is pretty close to the American administration. Does it surprise anyone that a policy that is good for the investment industry would be acted on?

I have not been a fan of the embargo on Cuba. It's maintenance seems mostly a matter of embitterment, supposedly a signal to other nations that nationalization of American investments will be punished.

But. I am not so wet behind the ears as to believe this was only done to end that embitterment.