Kennedy averaged four to five cigars a day, and his love of cigars became one of the most famous footnotes of his presidency. On the evening of February 6, 1962, Kennedy called Press Secretary Pierre Salinger into his office and asked him to procure "about 1,000 Petit Upmanns" by the following morning. Salinger worked through the night scouring Washington tobacconists, and returned the next day with 1,200 Cuban cigars. Kennedy smiled, opened his desk, and signed the decree banning all Cuban products from the United States. The man who loved Cuban cigars had just made them illegal for everyone else. With his personal stash secured and Havana off the table, Kennedy turned to the next best thing - and the Philippine government was already way ahead of him.
The paper trail accompanying this cigar tells the full story. In April 1961, Philippine Ambassador Carlos P. Romulo wrote to Kennedy directly after Manila newspapers published a photo of him smoking a cigar, suggesting it "may be a good idea to let you sample what we believe are the best cigars in the world." The cigars were sent through Secretary Salinger to avoid adding to Kennedy's schedule. By July 1961 Romulo was back, writing to Salinger personally: "I have just returned from the Philippines and I bring with me the best cigars in the World -- our Philippine cigars -- and I am sending you these two boxes, one for the President and the other one for you." By January 1963 -- just ten months before Dallas -- Kennedy was writing personally to the new Philippine Ambassador thanking him for "the handsome, personalized, mahogany box of very fine cigars," calling the gift "another demonstration of the warm friendship existing between our countries." The cigar in this display came from that relationship. It remains in its original cellophane sheath, stamped in gold lettering "SPECIALLY MADE FOR PRESIDENT KENNEDY," bearing a Coronas Alhambra label reading "Choicest Philippine Tobacco / Sumatra Wrapper." Above it hangs a photograph purchased directly from the JFK Library, showing Kennedy smoking a cigar aboard the Presidential yacht Honey Fitz on August 31, 1963 -- Labor Day weekend, less than three months before his assassination. The framed display measures 14.5" x 21.5", and is accompanied by photocopies of the complete diplomatic correspondence from the JFK Presidential Library & Museum documenting exactly how this cigar came to sit in the White House.
