Actually he inherited the policies that led to Khrushchev desiring to place medium range nukes in Cuba. (we had them in Germany and Turkey)
Essentially, without getting into specifics, it is the same deterrent policy the Bush admin had in a somewhat modified way.
Things have changed since and we use subs now for the same tactical advantages. And so do they....
As part of the stand down, when both us and Russia were on full alert, we agreed to remove our missiles from Turkey over a period of years, and Russia agreed to take their crap back from Castro.
The man admitted Khrushchev slapped him around, and then he started Vietnam after almost killing us in a nuclear war with Russia, the guy was an idiot in foreign policy.
Eisenhower and his vice president, weren’t.
With no JFK, the 1960s wouldn’t have become the destructive decade, Vietnam tore us apart, as did JFK’s immigration goals that became realized in 1965 which makes a coherent foreign policy increasingly impossible.