How John F. Kennedy got 1,200 hand rolled Cuban cigars just hours before he ordered his trade embargo against Castro more than 53 years ago

JFK's press secretary told the story on video before his death, describing a evening mad dash to buy up the president's favorite Cuban stogies

Pierre Salinger laid his hands on 1,200 H.Upmann cigars in Kennedy's favorite size – in just one night

After JFK found out he had all the cigars he would need, he immediately signed the trade embargo declaring future purchases illegal

President Barack Obama relaxed trade sanctions against Cuba on Wednesday, allowing US travelers to Cuba to bring back up to $100 worth of cigars

That amount would buy no more than 10 of JFK's favorite smokes today on the open market

By David Martosko, US Political Editor for MailOnline and Lee Moran

President John F. Kennedy ordered his press secretary on February 2, 1962 to buy him as many of his favorite Cuban cigars as he could lay his hands on – and held off signing the Cuban trade embargo until his precious stogies were safely inside the White House.

Kennedy asked Pierre Salinger to find at least 1,000 H.Upmann petit coronas, and gave him just a half-day to accomplish the task before they would become contraband.

The next morning, Salinger recalled in rare video footage of his storytelling, he reported that he had bought up 1,200 of Cuba's finest exports – a feat the president pronounced 'Fantastic!' just before he signed a decree that banned all the communist country's products from the U.S.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

SMOKE ON DEMAND: President John F. Kennedy asked his press secretary to buy him 1,000 of his favorite Cuban cigars and waited to sign his U.S. trade embargo until he knew the tobacco was in the White House

PARTNERS IN CRIME? Pierre Salinger (left) was a regular cigar smoker, so he asked all the stores he knew to sell him every H. Upmann 'petit' cigar they had so JFK (right) could stock up

'We went through probably the biggest disaster in the Kennedy administration, which was the Bay of Pigs,' Salinger recounted in the video. 'And about a month after the Bay of Pigs the president called me into his office about five in the afternoon.'

'He said, "I really need some help".'

'I said, "What do you want, Mr. President?"'

'He said, "I need cigars"."

'The president smoked Cuban cigars,' Salinger explained. 'He smoked the "petit Upmann," as I remember it.'

'I said, "How many do you need?"'

'He said, "A thousand".'

'I said, "When do you need them?"'

'He said, 'By tomorrow morning".'

"That's a very tough assignment,' he remembered telling JFK, 'but I'll see what I can do.'

LEGAL AGAIN: President Barack Obama lifted some of America's sanctions against Cuba on Wednesday, making it legal for Americans who travel there to bring back a limited supply of cigars

THEN AND NOW: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro pictured in 1976 (left) and in 2009 (right)

'I was smoking a lot of cigars myself in those days,' he said, 'so I contacted a lot of my stores. And the next morning I got to the office at eight o-clock, and the president was already ringing me from the Oval Office – "Come right in. Come right in".'

JFK'S FAVORITE: THE CUBAN PETIT CORONA CIGAR BY H.UPMANN The hand-rolled H.Upmann cigar brand is one of Cuba's oldest. It was established in 1844 by two brothers, Herman and August Upmann, in Havana. The petit corona, known by aficionados as the 'petit Upmann,' was discontinued in 2002 but the factory later reinvented it along with its line of other 'vitolas,' or specific sizes and shapes. Originally it was a mild-to-medium-bodied cigar, only about the width of a man's pinky finger. Upmann used a blend of tobacco from the Vuelta Abajo region of Cuba to make the cigars, which were all hand-rolled. Advertisement

'How'd you do?' President Kennedy asked him.

'I said, "I did very well, Mr. President",' he recalled.

'"How many did you get?"'

'"I got 1,200"'

Kennedy repled, 'Fantastic!' Salinger remembers.

And then, he says in the grainy footage unearthed by Janson Media, 'He opens up his desk drawer, and he pulls out the decree banning all Cuban products from the United States – and he signs it!''

At the time Kennedy signed his name to the paper, American teenagers were doing the Twist, the U.S. had yet to put a man into orbit around the earth, and a first-class postage stamp cost just 4 cents.

Critics have long called the embargo a failed policy that has hurt ordinary Cubans instead of muscling the government toward reforms.

It never managed to topple Fidel and Raul Castro. Raul is now in power and has been since Fidel fell ill years ago.

When Kennedy announced the embargo, he citing 'the subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet communism with which the government of Cuba is publicly aligned.'

JFK'S BRAND: H.Upmann cigars are a mild-to-medium blend favored by regular smokers

It went into effect just days later at the height of the Cold War, a year after the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion meant to oust communism from Cuba and eight months before Soviet attempts to put nuclear missiles on the island brought the two superpowers to the brink of war.

Striking a pose: JFK was photographed on many occasions enjoying cigars, and thanks to Salinger's story we know exactly what brand he smoked

Washington already had some limited sanctions in place, but Kennedy's decision was the beginning of a comprehensive ban on U.S. trade with the island that remained intact until Wednesday.

In 1996 the Helms-Burton law tightened the sanctions further.

But President Barack Obama made a shocking move on Wednesday to reopen relations with Cuba and establish an embassy there.

That means Americans who travel to Havana – and there will be thousands – 'will be able to return to the U.S. with some Cuban products, including Cohibas and other Cuban cigars,' according to Cigar Aficionado magazine.

'The changes are dramatic, if not complete,; the magazine's executive editor David Savona wrote.

'This news does not mean that Cuban cigars and other goods will appear in U.S. cigar shops tomorrow morning, but it does pave an important first step – and a big one – toward establishing normalized relations between the two countries.'

The authoritative magazine's founder and publisher, Marvin Shanken, said Wednesday that 'for cigar smokers in America, Cuban cigars have long been the forbidden fruit. The cigar business was born in Cuba, and cigars made in Havana have a worldwide reputation for excellence.'

'We yearn for the day when our readers can have the opportunity to legally buy and enjoy cigars from every country.'

As Cuban cigars go, the current incarnation of the petit Upmann is a bargain-priced item because of its small size, selling where the purchase is legal for the equivalent of $10.