Interesting perspective. Here's another one:
After carefully considering the
alternatives of an immediate U.S. invasion of Cuba (or air strikes of the missile sites), a
blockade of the island, or further diplomatic maneuvers, U.S. Pres.
John F. Kennedy decided to place a naval “quarantine,” or blockade, on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of missiles. Kennedy announced the quarantine on October 22 and warned that U.S. forces would seize “offensive weapons and associated matériel” that Soviet vessels might attempt to deliver to Cuba. During the following days, Soviet ships bound for Cuba altered course away from the quarantined zone. As the two superpowers hovered close to the brink of nuclear war, messages were exchanged between Kennedy and Khrushchev amidst extreme tension on both sides. On October 28 Khrushchev
capitulated, informing Kennedy that work on the missile sites would be halted and that the missiles already in Cuba would be returned to the Soviet Union. In return, Kennedy committed the United States to never invading Cuba. Kennedy also secretly promised to withdraw the nuclear-armed missiles that the United States had stationed in
Turkey in previous years. In the following weeks both superpowers began fulfilling their promises, and the crisis was over by late November. Cuba’s communist leader,
Fidel Castro, was infuriated by the Soviets’ retreat in the face of the U.S.
ultimatum but was powerless to act.
The Cuban missile crisis marked the climax of an acutely antagonistic period in U.S.-Soviet relations. The crisis also marked the closest point that the world had ever come to global nuclear war. It is generally believed that the Soviets’ humiliation in Cuba played an important part in Khrushchev’s fall from power in October 1964 and in the Soviet Union’s determination to achieve, at the least, a nuclear parity with the United States.
Cuban missile crisis, major confrontation at the height of the Cold War that brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of a shooting war in October 1962 over the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba. The crisis was a defining moment in the presidency of John F...
www.britannica.com
To think that JFK prevented the USSR from placing nuclear ballistic missiles 90 miles from the United States, solely for political reasons, is nonsense. Situations like the Cuban Missile Crisis are every president's worst nightmare. High risk situation with very little to gain - especially if things do not go your way.
As far as the War in Ukraine - Biden has little or nothing to gain from it. If some sort of treaty is reached to end the war, it will be credited to Ukraine and likely Zelensky. Not much to gain politically for Biden, tbh.
