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In this Kennedy appeared to be following up on his anti-Communist speech with anti-Communist actions. but, the level of actual commitment was clearly not there. Kennedy had the entire United States military at his disposal. All he had to do was use them. but, clearly, he did not have the stomach to follow it all the way through. Kennedy wanted to appear strong but did not want to have to be strong - image meant everything.
Operation Mongoose continued the entire Cuban situation. It relied upon covert use of the CIA to make any and all attempts necessary to overthrow the Cuban government. On the heels of the Bay of Pigs failure, Kennedy attempted another poorly conceived attempt to rid himself of Castro. The operation essentially failed before it could possibly begin. Time after time, plans were brought out to be replaced by others. And those plans were impossibly strange at times; such as the idea to put a powder into Castro's sweaters that would make his beard fall out.
Not surprisingly, none of these plans were actually carried out due to the culmination of the conflict in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Kennedy's response to the Soviet missile buildup in Cuba can only be seen as an appropriate reaction to an immediate threat to the United States. but, this would prove to be his only success in the entire campaign. Had it not been for his inept handling of Cuba from the very beginning, Khrushchev...
Kennedy was forced to act because he had failed to be decisive before. The irony is incredible - he could have used the strength of the U.S. military to quell the Cuban revolution in its infancy - instead he emboldened Castro who has only now fallen from power due to old age.
In Vietnam, as well, Kennedy's failures to be truly committed, to try small remedies first to test the waters, led the United States into a war that would not end until 1975 - with an absolute abject failure.
In 1963, Kennedy's campaign in Vietnam began with covert operatives seeking to destabilize the region. The CIA went into North Vietnam and launched the largest terrorism and sabotage campaign taken up since World War II.
Again, this campaign, like the Bay of Pigs and Operation Mongoose was an absolute failure.
Kennedy's popularity in hindsight seems to be based more upon the perpetuation of an idealized image. He represented the power of youth, of potential. Unfortunately, his mistakes seemed to be born of youth and a lack of true conviction that what he was doing was right.
References
LeFeber, Walter. America, Russia and the Cold War: 1945-2002. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.
Merrill, Dennis & Paterson, Thomas G Major Problems in American Foreign Relations: Since 1914. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
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