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Ron, I agree that Lyndon Johnson and some of his allies were powerful space program backers. I didn't worry about the Apollo Program while he was president.

I saw Apollo 15 lift off for the Moon early on the morning of July 26, 1971, from across the Inland Waterway from the launch site. The previous afternoon, the Space Center Tour took us to within a mile of the vehicle, which was standing on the other side of a pond on its launch pad with the gantry rolled back. Both that, and the launch the next morning were unforgettable.

I was in the first year of college when Kennedy was elected. I supported him throughout that campaign primarily because of his support of space. At that time, no distinction was made between missiles developed for ICBM's, and rockets for space use, because they were interchangeable. The missile gap was also a space gap, and we that followed it knew it. Even if there were no eventual missile gap in ICBM's for defense, we were behind in space, so there was a space gap, which Kennedy filled with Apollo within his first 5 months in office.

Sorenson drafted many of Kennedy's speeches, but Kennedy wrote and rewrote much of his own material too. When Drew Pearson accused Kennedy of having had Sorenson write Profiles in Courage, he had his hand written drafts of the book delivered to him to examine. Certainly Sorenson's later efforts show little of Kennedy's vision.

In general, the problem I have with those that claim Kennedy wasn't serious about space is that he did more to support it than any President since. Actions speak louder than words. And the quote from his missile gap speech suggests to me that he did have the long term vision as well, and rather early on at that.

Thanks for the welcome to the forum! Years ago I posted frequently to the sci.space.policy newsgroup, but located this forum through the Mars Society (I'm a member). I hope I'm not too much of a cantankerous old guy now ... 

This is the opening to John F. Kennedy's Senate speech of August 14, 1958 on the missile gap, which appears in his 1960 book, The Strategy of Peace.

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The Missile Gap
In the Senate
August 14, 1958

Mr. President, four hundred years ago the British Crown and people realized with a sense of shock that they had lost Calais forever. Long considered an impregnable symbol of British supremacy in Europe, this last foothold of English power on the Continent was surrendered to the French in 1558. It is said that when Mary of England died, in the same year, the word "Calais" was engraved upon her heart --- but that she was, in the words of The Cambridge Modern History, an eminent example "of the inadequacy of deep convictions and pious motives to guide the state aright." Once they had recovered from their initial panic, the British set about adjusting their thinking and their policies to the loss they had suffered. With their gateway to the Continent gone, they sought new power and influence in the seas. A navy was built, new trade routes promoted, a new maritime emphasis established; and when the Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588, the panic and pessimism that had followed the loss of Calais were forgotten as Britannia ruled the waves. The old power, the foundation for old policies, was gone --- but new policies had brought a new power and new security.

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How far did Kennedy carry this historical analogy with Elizabethan England in his own head? Did he actually picture a transition into a spacefaring nation as part of it? Was this a factor in his Apollo decision?

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