I agree, but for the record, my former socialist MA colleague thinks JFK was a standard “hard core Cold Warrior.”
Bay of Pigs certainly disavows one of such a notion. It makes Oswald’s “reasoning” for killing JFK baffling (if the claim was “Hands off Cuba” — he certainly was “hands off”). I’ll bet Khrushchev was floored how easily he got away with everything. The Soviets weren’t going to go to WW3 over Cuba.
One thing is quite clear, however, and that is that JFK was THE most overrated President in the history of our Republic (and quite probably one of the most dangerously incompetent). A premier example of what happens when the media and pop culture “select” a leader, the very last people that should be doing so.