I agree with all your corrections. Bay of Pigs was a classic case of how liberals are incapable of fighting wars right.
For JFK, image trumped substance and he was willing to let the freedom fighters die on the beach rather than give the wrong impression of US might. Either call it all off or support it, but dont let them go based on a plan you wont execute.
we could also add a heap of Reagan interventions and point out that both of them, Ike and Reagan, were in the TR mold of “speak softly and carry a big stick”.
Which makes the Ron Paul attempt to claim these two interventionists as aligned with his isolationism more bizarre. Ron should have instead looking to warren Harding as the role model ... or maybe Jimmy Carter, LOL.
Paul would probably claim Washington. Avoid entangling alliances, don’t get involved in the old world’s wars.
But there is a difference in getting involved in our own hemisphere and trying to remake an ancient Islamic culture into a liberal domocracy. And Ike and Reagan’s interventions were in the context of the Cold War, they weren’t utopian attempts to remake societies.
I haven’t followed the Paul controversy as closely as I should but I think some of the attacks on him are way out of line.