Not to sound ignorant

[World's End Stella]

In response to a nuclear threat to US territory, he chose to escalate the situation to the brink of nuclear war. That he may have been right to do so and the fact that we got back from that brink don't alter that fact.
My point is that nobody calls him mad for those actions.

The way you phrased it implied that he had initiated the conflict that brought us close to nuclear war when in fact he reacted to extreme provocation very cautiously and diplomatically. He was under a lot of pressure from people like Lemay to bomb the Cuban missile sites (now that would have been escalation) but chose instead to use the embargo and diplomacy to resolve the situation.

Not sure anyone would consider him mad for the way he handled it, it was one if his finest moments.