JFK Ordered 1,200 Cuban Cigars Before Signing Cuban Embargo?

[JohnS]

The anecdote that President Kennedy's press agent, Pierre Salinger famously acquired 1200 Cuban cigars prior to the signing of a trade embargo between the US and Cuba in February, 1962 into law is nowadays commonly accepted. However, the article below questions the details in this story. In my view, this doesn't mean that the story is not true, as it may not have been convenient for it to become common knowledge, until some time passed after the event.

JFK Ordered 1,200 Cuban Cigars Before Signing Cuban Embargo?

Records indicate the 35th president averaged “four to five cigars a day.”

By Madison Dapcevich - Published Jan. 14, 2025

Image courtesy of Image courtesy of Cecil Stoughton. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

A claim that former President John F. Kennedy ordered 1,200 Cuban cigars right before outlawing them has been circulating online for years.

For example, one X user, whose post had amassed more than 14.3 million views as of this writing, wrote in mid-December 2024 (archived): "In 1962, John F. Kennedy ordered 1,200 Cuban cigars just hours before he made them illegal."

Other iterations of the rumor cropped up in 2014, 2019 and 2022, while the latest examples appeared on Facebook and Instagram in early January 2025.

The 35th president's affinity for cigars is well documented. According to his former press secretary, Pierre Salinger, Kennedy averaged "four to five cigars a day." In 1992, Salinger penned an article in Cigar Aficionado magazine titled "Great Moments: Kennedy, Cuba and Cigars." In the piece, the president's friend and confidant described obtaining more than 1,000 Cuban cigars for Kennedy before he signed the Cuban embargo, effectively outlawing the ability to purchase the tobacco products.

However, Corbin Apkin, an archivist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, said via email that their records did not contain documentation supporting the claim.

"However, the archives do confirm some parts of Salinger's story, including one of John F. Kennedy's preferred brands of cigar: Petit Upmann," Apkin said.

Salinger's account is the only record of Kennedy requesting and receiving Cuban cigars just moments before he signed legislation to prevent trade between the U.S. and Cuba.

In February 1962, Kennedy "proclaimed an embargo on trade between the United States and Cuba, in response to certain actions taken by the Cuban Government, and directed the Departments of Commerce and the Treasury to implement the embargo, which remains in place today," according to the U.S. Department of State.

Salinger wrote about the president's love of cigars in the 1992 Cigar Aficionado article that can be read in its entirety here. It read in part:

Shortly after I entered the White House in 1961, a series of dramatic events occurred. In April, 1961, the United States went through the disastrous error of the Bay of Pigs, where Cuban exiles with the help of the United States government tried to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Several months later, the President called me into his office in the early evening.

"Pierre, I need some help," [Kennedy] said solemnly.

"I'll be glad to do anything I can Mr. President," I replied.

"I need a lot of cigars."

"How many, Mr. President?"

"About 1,000 Petit Upmanns."

I shuddered a bit, although I kept my reaction to myself. "And, when do you need them, Mr. President?"

"Tomorrow morning."

I walked out of the office wondering if I would succeed. But since I was now a solid Cuban cigar smoker, I knew a lot of stores, and I worked on the problem into the evening.

The next morning, I walked into my White House office at about 8 a.m., and the direct line from the President's office was already ringing. He asked me to come in immediately.

"How did you do Pierre?" he asked, as I walked through the door.

"Very well," I answered. In fact, I'd gotten 1,200 cigars. 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.

Apkin noted that archived records confirm Kennedy's fondness for Cuban cigars, but there is no record to prove or disprove Salinger's anecdotal story that the former president ordered 1,200 of them before signing the Cuban embargo.

"This material does not include any information about any cigars ordered the night before the Cuba embargo, or what may have happened to such cigars," Apkin said via email. 

The 35th president's cigar preference was also a topic of interest to the general public. For example, on Oct. 18, 1963, The Salt Lake Tribune, a newspaper based in Salt Lake City, Utah, published an answer to a reader's question about which type of cigars Kennedy smoked. The author replied by crediting Salinger as having said: "The President likes small cigars of no particular brand."

Evelyn Lincoln, personal secretary to the president, wrote in a June 12, 1963, response to a constituent letter that the president liked "small panatela type of various brands which are obtainable in any cigar store."

Another letter, dated Jan. 5, 1963, from a person named Phillis Surwillo, referenced an article published by the Orlando Sentinel, a Florida-based newspaper, that reported: "JFK smokes cigars from Cuba." Surwillo asked if the president was "indeed still smoking Cuban cigars" and, if so, what his justifications were for doing so. No response was included in the archives.

Salinger wrote in an Aug. 25, 1961, letter to a constituent that the president was "a recent arrival in the ranks of cigar smokers." He added that Kennedy "prefers long, thin Cuban cigars (Upmanns or Monticellos)" and "averages four to five cigars a day." 

Source Article: https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/01/14/jfk-cuban-cigars-kennedy/

Sources

"Cuba Sanctions." United States Department of State, https://www.state.gov/cuba-sanctions/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

Home | JFK Library. https://www.jfklibrary.org/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

Inc, M. Shanken Communications. "Autumn 92." Cigar Aficionado, http://www.cigaraficionado.com/issue/autumn-92. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

"Great Moments: Kennedy, Cuba and Cigars." Cigar Aficionado, http://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/great-moments-kennedy-cuba-and-cigars-7840. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

President (PP): 15: Preferences and Hobbies: General | JFK Library. https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkwhcsf-0722-016. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkwhcsf-0722-016. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

Salinger, Pierre E. G.: Oral History Interview - JFK #1, 7/19/1965 | JFK Library. https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkoh-pes-01. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025. 

[Wookie]

Rules only apply where they apply. 

[Chas.Alpha]

We the People accept this as fact. To go further, check when Khrushchev gave a humidor to the US Secretary of State.

[VeguerosMAN]

Many believe that JFK smoked Upmann Petite Coronas, which were hand made. He smoked machine-made cigars like Petite Upmann.

[99call]

Strangely the only thing I've ever found interesting about this story is that 1,200 is actually an incredibly small amount of cigars, especially being minutos. 

If I was President and was about to impose an embargo, I would have a Herc empty the whole of the Upmann factory. 

[ha_banos]

Maybe he only expected the embargo to last a year or so.

[SCgarman]

48 minutes ago, ha_banos said:

Maybe he only expected the embargo to last a year or so.

Ironically he was the one that only lasted a year before his brains were scattered all over the back of his convertible limo. Marvin Shanken owns his humidor, I believe it sold for $500,000. Every dog eventually has his day.