Cigars & Che & JFK

[jacksfull]

It occurred to me that the long circulated story of JFK's request for aides to find him 1,000 H. Upmann Petit Coronas the night before he signed the embargo into effect might have been an indication of how long he expected it to last. My thinking was, if JFK was a three-cigar-a-day man then perhaps in his mind the embargo was intended to last only a year; one-cigar-a-day makes it a three year proposition. I think FoH-ers know well that a man in a position to have whatever he wants would not intentionally allow his taste for CC's to outstrip his supply.

In looking for some indication of JFK's smoking habits I ran across an old article from CA by Richard Goodwin, a former Kennedy advisor and BOTL. The article doesn't answer my question, and in fact may indeed shoot down my whole theory with the mention that "Kennedy himself had a continuing supply (of CC's) imported in the diplomatic bag of his friend, British Ambassador David Ormsby Gore." Nevertheless, I found it facinating reading... including an anecdote about how Goodwin's own love of cigars opened a secret dialog with Che Guevera that might very well have resolved the economic standoff.

Give it a look. The article is definitely worth the read:

Cigars & Che & JFK

[Erm310mce]

Great read, thanks for posting.

[paesano]

Here is some origional footage about that. Way cool story.

[jacksfull]

Here is some origional footage about that. Way cool story.

Great story! Very entertaining the way Salinger tells it.

BTW, is that a Cohiba in his hand?

[SnakeHips]

It occurred to me that the long circulated story of JFK's request for aides to find him 1,000 H. Upmann Petit Coronas the night before he signed the embargo into effect might have been an indication of how long he expected it to last. My thinking was, if JFK was a three-cigar-a-day man then perhaps in his mind the embargo was intended to last only a year; one-cigar-a-day makes it a three year proposition. I think FoH-ers know well that a man in a position to have whatever he wants would not intentionally allow his taste for CC's to outstrip his supply.

I think the only problem with this is that he didn't intend to work with any supply/usage ratios. From what I remember, he set out to buy as many as were available in the Washington, D.C. area, which totaled up to ~1,200 "Petite Upmanns." I doubt he figured in the length of the embargo, the quantity of cigars, his own per-day consumption, etc.

[thechenman]

That was a great and very insightful article. Bold too given the view of Che that so many people have.

[android]

Great article.