Cigar aroma rises above an embargo era

Happily, that workload should soon lighten. This week, after a year of secret talks between the US and Cuba, US President Barack Obama converted his longtime desire into policy, saying it is time to move beyond an "outdated approach". He chatted over the phone for 45 minutes with Cuban President Raul Castro, and prisoners were exchanged between the two countries. Diplomatic relations could resume and the US travel ban will ease soon. Some politicians still talk about sanctions as if they are a useful diplomatic tool, but history of the Cuban embargo - which was 50 years old in 2012 - suggests that sanctions do little to resolve conflicts; they merely punish people.

One of them, ironically, was Kennedy's cigar-loving press secretary Pierre Salinger. During a trip to Moscow for his boss in 1963, then Soviet Union premier Nikita Krushchev surprised Salinger with a gift.

"Gospodin Salinger, I see you like cigars," Salinger quotes the Soviet leader as saying. "Well, I don't, and yesterday I received a wonderful present from Fidel Castro. I'm going to give it to you."

"It" was a huge wooden box with the Cuban flag encrusted at the top, and inside were 250 "gorgeous" Cuban cigars.

Traveling on a special presidential diplomatic passport, Salinger knew he'd have no trouble at US Customs, and gleefully took the cigars home to share with the president. A shocked Kennedy didn't approve, however, sending his aide back to customs with instructions to turn in the cigars - and to get a receipt.

After the customs chief gave him the receipt, Salinger told Cigar Aficionado magazine years later: "I asked him what he was going to do with the cigars."

"Destroy them," he said without any sentiment.

"Yes, I know," Salinger remembers replying as he walked away. "You're going to destroy them one by one."

This week's news, of course, is about much more than if an American tourist can smoke a Cuban cigar. Obama's gesture toward Cuba, whose people and economy absurdly have been trapped in Cold War politics long after that dark chapter of history has been closed, means two neighbors with a natural affinity will learn to be friends again.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily. michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/20/2014 page6)