"The United States will not be imprisoned by the past – we're looking to the future. I'm not interested in having battles that frankly started before I was born."

Obama was not yet born when Fidel rolled into Havana, Jan. 1, 1959. He was 1 year old during the missile crisis. His mother belonged to a 1960s generation that welcomed the Cuban Revolution. His father came from an African generation that won independence from the European empires.

Churchill's bust may have resided in the Oval Office of George Bush. Obama sent it back to the British Embassy. His hero is Nelson Mandela, who overthrew centuries of white rule in South Africa.

Obama is as rooted in the Third World as in the West, and his goal is to sweep out the clutter of a Cold War that "has been over a long time."

He lifted sanctions on Burma, is recognizing Castro's Cuba, and hopes to seal a nuclear deal with Iran and normalize relations.