Cuban cigars have long been an elusive commodity in the United States. Their monumental reputation and demand prompt many younger cigar enthusiasts to question why Cuban cigars are illegal in the U.S. The Cuban cigar embargo is simply an effect of the larger ban on trade with Cuba enacted by the Kennedy Administration several decades ago. To understand the rationale behind these policies, we need to travel back to the late 1950s, shortly before the U.S. and Soviet Union became locked in a…