Worst post-Stalin leader of the USSR

I suppose you would have preferred nuclear war? Also the idea that it made the USSR look weak is silly, since the Americans came out of it thinking they looked weak. There were significant concessions granted by the US to the Soviets, including the removal of missiles from Turkey as well as the abandonment of any attempts to invade Cuba. Kennedy's perceived weakness on Cuba probably contributed to his assassination by the CIA.

A) Brezhnev was a decrepit dying old man when that war started

B) Calling it a quagmire is a meme to get you to think it was like Vietnam. Only 15,000 Soviets died over 10 years (60k Americans died in nam), it was a very low level war on their end, and they weren't utterly unsuccessful, the president they installed remained in charge of Kabul at least until the USSR collapsed and Russia stopped sending aid.

It only made the USSR look weak to Americans because the removal of missiles from Turkey wasn't reported.

Soviet citizens thought they won that battle.

The problem is that it escalated to that point that Khruschev had to do nuclear war or make concessions, and any sane person would make concessions. Putting yourself in a position where you have to publicly retreat isn't good leadership.

Even if they thought they won the Politburo certainly didn't, if it was a win Khrushchev wouldn't have been kicked out and called a disgrace to socialism.

It was a totally unnecessary intervention in the first place. The course of the war from 1989 to 1991 showed that the government could win on its own. Direct Soviet involvement was just an unnecessary drain on their economy, alienated many Soviets from the government when their sons started coming home in body bags, and damaged their standing on the world stage. It was a bad geopolitical move in general, and if anything the direct involvement of foreigners strengthened the Mujahideen in the short term. They should have just stuck with aid to the Afghan government, with special forces and air strikes at most.

Kennedy was the one who escalated it by blockading Cuba. How else could Khrushchev have handled that situation?

A) not sending nukes to Cuba and sending conventional instead
B) not getting caught

BY LAUNCHING THE GOD DAMN NUKES THAT WOULD HAVE WIPED CAPITALISM OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH.

ALLOWING CAPITALISTS TO LIVE IS THE WORST FORM OF REVISIONISM

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Fair enough, but even sending conventional forces may have provoked the same response from Kennedy.

At that point the USSR was completely outmatched in nukes by the US, if anybody even survived it wouldn’t have been the Soviets.