One day in 1961, shortly after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, JFK called his cigar-smoking press secretary Pierre Salinger into the Oval Office.
"I need a lot of cigars," he declared. "How many, Mr. President?" Salinger asked. "About a thousand," Kennedy replied. "Tomorrow morning, call all your friends who have cigars and just get as many as you can." Salinger dutifully raced out to find as many H. Upmann petits as he could find.
The following morning he received an urgent message requesting his immediate presence in the Oval Office. "How did you do on the cigars last night?" Kennedy asked. "Mr. President, I was very successful," Salinger replied. "I got eleven hundred."
Hearing this, Kennedy opened a drawer in his desk and produced a decree banning all Cuban products from entry into the United States. "Good," he declared. "Now... I can sign this!"
[In April 1996, Cigar Aficionado editor and publisher Marvin Shanken bought JFK's walnut cigar humidor at a Sotheby's auction -- for $574,500.]
Sources
San Francisco Examiner magazine, December 15, 1996, pp. 40-42
