The old man had remained an enigma, swinging precipitantly between clownishness and decisiveness.

And yet after all, though the poor came to town very precipitantly, as I have said, yet I must say the rich made no such haste.

So Kennedy couldn't act precipitantly, he couldn't simply do what he wanted to do which was to get rid of Castro, because if he'd done that then his policy objectives in other parts of the world would be in jeopardy.