Time to bring Cuba in from the cold

Thursday, November 04 2010

Thom Woodroofe | Sydney Morning Herald

Fidel Castro's revelation to a US journalist that the communist model doesn't work any more shows it is in everyone's interests, including ours, for the US embargo of Cuba to end.

On the morning of February 7, 1962, president John F. Kennedy leant back in his chair in the Oval Office and smoked a Cuban cigar. He then signed an Executive Order, which put into effect an embargo of the Caribbean country.

The story goes that JFK ordered his press secretary the night before signing the order to obtain 1200 cigars. When he returned in the morning, Kennedy somewhat begrudgingly signed the order. JFK had originally wanted cigars excluded, but bowed to protests from Florida's tobacco farmers.

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