JFK Worried Moon Mission Was a 'Stunt,' New Tapes Show

[kpete]

JFK Worried Moon Mission Was a 'Stunt,' New Tapes Show
MAY 25 2011, 8:22 AM ET1
The space program is one of President John F. Kennedy's great legacies but he privately fretted that putting a man on the moon was not much more than a "stunt," according to a secretly-recorded Oval Office conversation finally going public Wednesday.

"But this looks like a hell of a lot of dough to go to the moon when you can go -- you can learn most of that you want scientifically through instruments and putting a man on the moon really is a stunt and it isn't worth that many billions," Kennedy told James Webb, the head of NASA, on Sept. 18, 1963, just over two months before the president was assassinated in Dallas.

The tape is being released on Wednesday's 50th anniversary of Kennedy's speech to Congress in which he set out a moon landing as a goal to be achieved within the decade. The May 25, 1961 address came soon after Alan Shepard Jr. became the first American launched into space on May 5, 1961, following a similar Soviet feat on April 12, 1961.

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MORE:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/05/jfk-worried-moon-mission-was-a-stunt-new-tapes-show/239431/

[LeftinOH]

1. Well- it was. We wanted to get there before the commies. n/t

[aquart]

2. BEST STUNT EVER.

[Posteritatis]

3. +1! (nt)

[hootinholler]

5. We seem to seldom agree

This is one of those moments.

-Hoot

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. "We choose to go to the moon.

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. "

Sept 12, 1962: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/jfk-space.htm

It was already publicly announced that it was a 'stunt'.

[deutsey]

6. No, landing on an aircraft carrier to announce "Mission Accomplished" was a stunt n/t

[madinmaryland]

8. [phone]

:thumbsup:

[Octafish]

9. + another 10000000000

Hope Mr. Webb explained all the reasons for manned exploration of space. I heard Mr. Sorensen detail them myself.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. I always suspected NASA. Kennedy knew too much.

[jberryhill]

11. That's why NASA diverted the money and faked the moon landing

...after they got JFK out of the way.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. Or maybe it was..... THE PHONE COMPANY

[RT Atlanta]

10. Pretty damn cool stunt at that

for its inspirational value... that level of commitment to math & sciences today would do wonders for our nation's school children (not the pseudo science that is hawked by so many folks in the anti-education crowd).

We need to go back too....



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/4/4c/20100817202623!Apollo_16_LM_Orion.jpg

[nilram]

17. wow. just wow.

[former9thward]

12. Kennedy was correct.

It clearly was a stunt of sorts because after we went there a few times we never went back.

[struggle4progress]

13. A major purpose of the "space race" was so the US/USSR could say to each other:

"Look! If we can do that with a rocket, you know we can drop a nuke on Moscow/Washington"

I always thought the moon stuff was inspiring and exciting. But it also served propaganda purposes in the Cold War. And it would be silly to ignore the military message

[KittyWampus]

14. It was. And manned spaceflight is a waste of energy/resources.

[Baby Bear]

16. Only a fool never has doubts

JFK was no fool.