The stakes were way too high. Kennedy was taking a chance, was chancing the lives of millions 
of people to retain nationalistic pride.

During the missile crisis, Kennedy was acting largely out of passion. Passion never makes a 
good ground for ruling and making decisions.

Not only did he provoke an already raging bull, but Kennedy seemed to push for nuclear war more 
than Khrushchev did. Having prepared several strike forces to send a nuclear strike on a 
minute's notice, Kennedy had ordered these forces to attack not out of necessity, but to 
actually drop the first nuclear weapons in the event of any Russian resistance. He was ready to 
take it nuclear, before Khrushchev.

The Russian people wanted the action to be escalated. Khrushchev acted against the will of his 
people to back down. In fact, he was seen as an embarrassment to the Soviet Union and was 
removed from office.

It was later discovered that the Soviets actually had missiles ready to launch, and within 
range. They had the full capability to send a nuclear attack. Kennedy's actions were based on 
calling a bluff that didn't exist.