Kennedy gets no pass on this. Especially Kennedy!
Nor Maxwell Taylor, nor the Bundy brothers, nor Walt Rostow nor Eugene Rostow nor Ambassador Lodge nor Ellsworth Bunker nor Allen Dulles nor any of the other New Mandarin Ivy League smartasses that got us into it -- and then walked away: "the best and the brightest". They all had feet of clay, but walked around like chryselephantine gods.
And that includes, you, Henry the K. I'm talking about you over here.