Good stuff! I expected to know all of this, but in fact there was a ton of new information.

It's pretty awful how the US has single-minded hated Cuba for over 60 years and gone out of its way to prevent Cuba from international trade, and yet the one country whose nationals actually invaded US soil and killed thousands of its inhabitants, Saudi Arabia, has continued to be one of the America's closest allies. As a long-time New Yorker who was within walking distance of 9/11 when it happened, I have never understood this.

(And see this anecdote: https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/john-f-kennedy-cigars.)