Yeah, but he did stand the Russians down in Cuba.
He created the mess, and the media made him the hero of his debacle.
“We ended up getting exactly what wed wanted all along, snickered Nikita Khrushchev in his diaries, security for Fidel Castros regime and American missiles removed from Turkey and Italy. Until today the U.S. has complied with her promise not to interfere with Castro and not to allow anyone else to interfere with Castro.”
” That Khrushchev swept the floor with Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis was mainstream conservative conclusion throughout much of the Cold War. Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater, for instance, represented opposite poles of the Republican establishment of their time.
We locked Castros communism into Latin America and threw away the key to its removal, growled Barry Goldwater about the JFKs Missile Crisis solution.
Kennedy pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory, complained Richard Nixon. Then gave the Soviets squatters rights in our backyard.
Generals Curtis Le May and Maxwell Taylor represented opposite poles of the military establishment.
The biggest defeat in our nations history! bellowed Air Force chief Curtis Lemay while whacking his fist on his desk upon learning the details of the deal.
We missed the big boat, complained Gen. Maxwell Taylor after learning the same.
Weve been had! yelled then Navy chief George Anderson upon hearing on October 28, 1962, how JFK solved the missile crisis. Adm. Anderson was the man in charge of the very blockade against Cuba.
Its a public relations fable that Khrushchev quailed before Kennedy, wrote Alexander Haig. The legend of the eyeball to eyeball confrontation invented by Kennedys men paid a handsome political dividend. But the Kennedy-Khrushchev deal was a deplorable error resulting in political havoc and human suffering through the Americas.
William Buckleys National Review devoted several issues to exposing and denouncing Kennedys appeasement. The magazines The Third World War column roundly condemned Kennedys Missile Crisis solution as Americas defeat.
Even Democratic luminary Dean Acheson despaired: This nation lacks leadership, he grumbled about the famous Ex-Comm meetings so glorified in the movie Thirteen Days. The meetings were repetitive and without direction. Most members of Kennedys team had no military or diplomatic experience whatsoever. The sessions were a waste of time.
But not for the Soviets. We ended up getting exactly what wed wanted all along, snickered Nikita Khrushchev in his diaries, security for Fidel Castros regime and American missiles removed from Turkey and Italy. Until today the U.S. has complied with her promise not to interfere with Castro and not to allow anyone else to interfere with Castro. “
http://humanevents.com/2013/10/24/so-when-did-the-cuban-missile-crisis-become-kennedys-victory/