I agree with your assessment of JFKs performance during the missile crisis, but it only makes up for his abysmal failure during the Bay of Pigs affair just a few months earlier.

The whole plan was hopeless from the start: sending a 1500 man force against a 100,000 man modern army. But the exile brigade was ready to take their chances. Still, it was poorly conceived, poorly planned, poorly executed. The force was lied to and never received the military support they had been promised. Kennedy equivocated, tried to have it both ways, caved in to his hawk critics and ignored the advice of people who knew it would fail. But worst of all, he lied to those men he sent in to die. At the last minute he witheld support, including the follow up Marines they were promised. Even if the brigade had taken the beach and held it, they had no way to move into the island and exploit their victory. It was a betrayal of the highest order.

It was a heroic stand by the invaders, they inflicted more casualties than they took against a vastly superior force, in both numbers and equipment. They fought in good order until the last cartridge. They were just overwhelmed by artillery, armor and air power. They never had a chance,and Kennedy must have known that from the beginning.

He thought the Cuban people would rise up spontaneously against Fidel the moment the men came ashore. He was mistaken.