John F Kennedy snagged 1200 Cuban cigars before ordering US trade embargo on Cuba - VIDEO

Had press secretary Pierre Salinger purchase stockpile

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President John F Kennedy secured for himself 1,200 Cuban cigars just hours before enacting the Cuban trade embargo in 1962

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President John F Kennedy secured for himself 1,200 Cuban cigars just hours before enacting the Cuban trade embargo in 1962. Before signing the embargo, Kennedy requested his head of press, Pierre Salinger, to get him “1,000 Petit Upmanns.”

The Daily Mail reports on the story, which Salinger commented on to Cigar Aficiando magazine in 1992. This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of JFK signing the Cuban trade embargo.

Salinger recalls Kennedy calling him into his office to see if he could provide 'some help' in securing 'a lot of cigars' by the following morning. In hindsight, it is evident that Kennedy wanted to stockpile the Cuban products before he legalized the ban of their trade.

“The next morning, I walked into my White House office at about 8am, and the direct line from the President's office was already ringing. He asked me to come in immediately,” said Salinger.
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Kennedy was pleased to learn that Salinger was successful and had gotten him 1,200 Cuban cigars.

Salinger remembers, “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 reemerges as the United States rolls into its fiftieth year of trade embargo with Cuba. The decision as to whether or not the embargo should remain is split today.

Supporters believe that the trade restriction is justified as Cuba continues its “repressive” form of government, while critics are vocal that it has ailed the Cuban population rather than the government itself.

JFK was also in the news recently as Mimi Alford, a nineteen year old intern at the White House in 1962, published her book ‘Once Upon an Affair,’ which recounts her affair with the married president that continued from 1962 until his assassination in 1963.

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