President John F. Kennedy was known for many things: his charisma, his charm, his wit, and his love of Cuban cigars. But did you know that he ordered 1,200 of his favorite smokes just hours before he made them illegal in the United States?
That’s right, JFK was a fan of the H Upmann Petit Coronas, a hand-rolled Cuban cigar brand that dates back to 1844. He smoked them regularly in the White House, and even gave them as gifts to his friends and allies. But in February 1962, he faced a dilemma: he had to sign a trade embargo with Cuba to sanction Fidel Castro’s communist regime, which had seized power in 1959 and confiscated private property and assets, including cigar companies.
So what did he do? He asked his press secretary Pierre Salinger, a fellow cigar aficionado, to buy him as many Cuban cigars as he could before the embargo took effect. “I need a lot of cigars,” Kennedy told Salinger. “How many, Mr. President?” “About 1,000 Petit Upmanns.”
Salinger recalls that he “shuddered a bit” at the request, but kept his reaction to himself. He worked on the problem into the evening, and managed to secure 1,200 cigars for the president by the next morning. When he delivered them to Kennedy’s office, he witnessed a historic moment.
“Kennedy smiled, and opened up his desk. He took out a long paper which he immediately signed. It was the decree banning all Cuban products from the United States. Cuban cigars were now illegal in our country.”
The story of Kennedy’s cigars has been told and retold over the years, as a testament to his cunning, his hypocrisy, or his passion, depending on your perspective. It also illustrates the irony of the trade embargo, which has been in effect for 60 years, with some modifications and exceptions over time, but has failed to achieve its objectives of undermining Castro’s government and promoting democracy and human rights in Cuba.
In fact, a secret 1982 CIA case study concluded that the trade sanctions were “significantly damaging to Cuba’s growth and general development,” but that the embargo had failed to meet its objectives and the political costs outweighed its benefits.
Meanwhile, Cuban cigars have remained a coveted commodity for many Americans, who have resorted to smuggling them across borders or buying them online from third-party vendors. Some presidents have tried to ease the embargo or normalize relations with Cuba, such as Barack Obama in 2016, who allowed travelers to bring back up to $100 worth of Cuban cigars. But others have tightened the restrictions or reversed the policies of their predecessors, such as Donald Trump in 2017, who banned individual travel to Cuba and prohibited transactions with entities linked to the Cuban military.
Today, Cuban cigars are still illegal in the U.S., unless you have a special license or permission from the Treasury Department. But if you ever get your hands on one, you might want to light it up and enjoy it while you can. After all, you never know when another JFK might come along and snatch them away from you.
Relevant articles:
– John F Kennedy and Cuban Cigars, The Cigar Holder London, September 10, 2022
– How JFK snagged 1,200 Cuban cigars before 1962 trade embargo, IrishCentral, November 19, 2021
– Cuba Embargoed: U.S. Trade Sanctions Turn Sixty, National Security Archive, February 2, 2022
– The Reason That Cuban Cigars Are Illegal, LiveAbout, June 1, 2019