The United States should react optimistically, albeit cautiously, in regard to Cuban provisional leader Raul Castro's pledge to allow more open debate and analysis concerning issues facing that nation.

This country should be receptive to any genuine opportunity for bettering relations between the two nations. As has been so often acknowledged, tough economic sanctions on Cuba for more than 40 years failed to cripple the hold on power that Fidel Castro, Raul Castro's brother, maintained since taking control of the island nation in January 1959.

Only July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro gave his brother — his constitutionally designated successor — temporary powers as president and head of the ruling Communist Party after disclosing that he had an intestinal illness.

While Cuban officials haven't been willing to say that Fidel Castro won't return to power, they privately predict that it is unlikely he will return in the same all-powerful role he has maintained for nearly 50 years.

Raul Castro's announcement about an era of more openness would seem to be indirect confirmation of the validity of those privately voiced viewpoints.

It was on Jan. 1, 1959 — exactly 48 years ago — that Gen. Fulgencio Batista's reign as Cuba's leader ended.

Batista fled the country a week before Fidel Castro's forces entered the capital city of Havana and took control of the country — a country that three years later would put the world on the brink of nuclear war, thanks to the then-Soviet Union's basing of nuclear missiles on the island, purportedly to protect the Castro regime.

Since that crisis, the United States officially has been cold toward any major thrust toward normalization of relations as long as Fidel Castro's hold on power remains. Nevertheless, many Americans feel that a rethinking of that official stance is in order; perhaps Raul Castro's announcement will intensify that opinion.

It should, with an attitude of caution guiding the forefront.

Raul Castro made his announcement at a meeting with about 800 university leaders, telling them they should "fearlessly" engage in public debate and analysis.

"The first principle in constructing any armed forces is the sole command," he told the university leaders. "But that doesn't mean that we cannot discuss. That way we reach decisions, and I'm talking about big decisions."

Fidel Castro demanded that his decisions not be questioned, and he chose to micromanage programs and policies.

If Raul Castro is true to his newly announced commitment in the months ahead, the United States should accept that as a signal of hope.

Thus, U.S. leaders should keep watching closely. Having an enemy 90 miles from U.S. shores has been of no benefit to U.S. Government interests, and has not bettered the lives of Cuban citizens who long for the day of warmer relations between the two nations.

Raul Castro is at least a partially open window.

There has been no such opening during Fidel Castro's long grip on power.