I hate to sound like I am defending a Kennedy, but I am not! The following is just stating a fact.
The missile given up in Turkey were Jupiter PGM-19’s, a liquid fueled IRBM, by the 1960’s outdated. Liquid fueled missiles were being phased out, too slow to prepare for launch. Since they were IRBMs too close to the target to be that slow!
So if we had to give up something, that’s the something to give up!
And the Space race. Got to give him a bit of credit for that vision. Unless I’m not correct.