[Animats]

Kennedy had been in WWII, too. At a low level. Look up "PT-109".

There was much misreading of enemy intention. The US people had aerial photographs of the missile installations in Cuba, and noticed that they were laid out just like other USSR installations in colder climates. This was taken to mean that the USSR wanted the US to recognize them. That was more of a direct threat than putting them in secretly.

In the 1990s, some of the high-level participants from both sides had a get-together.[1] This subject came up. The Russian officer who'd been in charge of the base construction said "Oh, no, we just did it that way because that was what it said to do in the field manual".

Of course. They had a prefab missile base and assembly instructions.

[1] https://robertmcnamara.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Rabe-1...