Kennedy beat Nixon, because he was more likable, not because people thought he would make a better president.
Nixon had been on record that we should not send large numbers of troops into SE Asia, as our experience would be no different than the France’s (which had spent 15 years after WWII fighting and getting bogged down in Vietnam and then finally just abandoned it). This was also Ike’s position, which he informed Kennedy of during their transition meetings.
Kennedy’s position was that we could do a better job than the French had, so he started sending troops into Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson (who never would have been president in the first place, but for being the likable JFK’s VP) escalated it into a full fledged war. Again, believing we could succeed where the French had failed.
Nixon had been right. Our experience in the Vietnam was the same as the French experience after WWII. We got bogged down in a decade long war we had no chance of winning, and then finally just pulled out and abandoned it.
I’m sure the families of the 50,000 men killed in Vietnam (as well as all those wounded) as so thankful we elected the likable John Kennedy, instead of that grumpy old Richard Nixon (who would have never sent troops into Vietnam to begin with).
so what is your point?