Why did JFK set for the Moon?

In this post we will try to understand why the Americans went to the Moon.

Hidden inside the answer, we also get a hint why no one have tried to go back for almost 50 years, and why nobody is seriously dedicated to plans for manned spaceflight to Mars or other planets. The circumstances that led the Americans to undertake this monumental effort, was just so exceptional that we may not see anything like it for still many decades to come. Man will undertake an effort of such titanic scale, only when it is perceived as an absolute urgent necessity.

So, the Americans set sails for the Moon not to advance science, not to explore the Moon and not because they believed in a great future for man in space. Although all three reasons were positive side-effects, and played an important role as a driver for many individuals working at the project, they were certainly not perceived "urgent necessities" by most American tax-payers. The real reason was of course, that  

The Americans went to the Moon to beat the Soviet Union in the battle of the cold war called the Space Race.

Now why was that so important? So important, that John F. Kennedy and with him, the American people, would chose to invest some 20 billion hard-earned tax-dollars, risk the lives of the best men of a generation and to allocate some 400.000 of its most productive citizens working for the Apollo project? Was it just to boast? Was it hurt pride from a sore loser? Of course not. That would absolutely not be a sufficient driver for such an undertaking, and it would indeed not have fit the political and personal mindset of John F. Kennedy.

By May 1961 Kennedy had been president for four months. Like his predecessor President Eisenhower, he was not enthusiastic about space travel and would have preferred to devote American resources to more down-to earth issues than traveling to the Moon or similar space odysseys.

Unlike Eisenhower, however, JFK came to the conclusion that America would have to compete in the prestige race that the Russians had orchestrated so skillfully. This was unavoidable if the interests of freedom and of the American people were to be protected.

American intelligence regarding public opinion in Western Europe indicated that a significant and growing minority saw communism as the system of the future and democratic capitalism as a lower stage of human development. The Russian achievements in space (Sputnik, Laika, the flight of Gagarin and yet more spectacular feats) were responsible for the opinion shift. Confidence in America and the free democratic system was wavering, as the Americans were clearly trailing the Soviet Union in the Space Race.

The obvious risk was that Americas allies would be lured to chose communist tyranny. To Kennedy that was a disaster of national concern as he found it "difficult to envisage the survival of a democratic American society as an island in a totalitarian see."[1]

After pondering the issue for months, consulting all relevant groups of advisors, like George Allen, Director of the USIA, who testified that

"Our space program has an importance far beyond the field of activity itself ... it may be considered as a measure of our vitality and our ability to compete with a formidable rival, and as a criterion of our ability to maintain technological eminence worthy of emulation by other peoples."

JFK's own analysis was, that America would have to fight and win the Space Race, in order to mitigate the victory of totalitarian tyranny.

From 1957 until the mid-60's, the Soviets were beating the Americans badly in the Space Race. Opinion was moving.

Indeed Kennedy was convinced that it was not only important, but the most important challenge for USA to win that particular battle. At a meeting with his advisors at the White House on 14 April 1961, JFK reluctantly stated [1]

"There is nothing more important than winning the Space Race.”

This was John F. Kennedy’s personal conclusion, two days after Gagarin's flight and 3 days prior to the Bay of Pigs affair which was probably the all-time low-point of his presidency.

JFK reasoned that "There is nothing more important than winning the Space Race".

On 25 May 1961, about one month after American morale had reached its nadir and 20 days after Alan Shepard became the first American in space (with Shephard trailing Gagarin by 23 days - and an earth-orbit), Kennedy gave a special address to the American Congress announcing his ambitious plan:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish." [2]

It was a brilliant stroke of political strategy. The plan was so bold and so exciting that the world press shifted its focus and began speaking of the planned American feats rather than the actual Russian ones. The speech caused a sensation around the world. The spotlight turned away from the Russians and Gagarin, who only six weeks earlier had seemed completely unbeatable. The winds of opportunity had shifted in favor of the Americans even before they had delivered the goods.

The matter was so important to JFK, by the way, that he deviated from his prepared speech, trying to do his utmost to convince the Congress, with an improvised appeal. According to his special advisor and speech-writer, Ted Sorensen, this was the only time he ever did that!

"The president looked strained in his effort to win them over. Suddenly he departed extensively from his prepared text - the only time he ever did that in addressing the Congress - to express his awareness of the responsibility they faced ... His voice sounded urgent... The Congress by nearly unanimous vote embraced what the President called this 'great new American enterprise.'"[3]

Both technologically and politically it was important that the plan was so complex and resource demanding that both sides would have to start from scratch in practice, and the Russians wouldn’t have the advantage of a head start. It seemed the Americans had a real chance of winning.

Never before or since have human beings taken it upon themselves to carry out such a dazzlingly ambitious project. The most powerful nation on earth had set itself the goal of going to the Moon!

In the words of the political analyst, John M. Logsdon. [1], the maelstrom of chaotic events had created a situation in which

"The politics of the moment had become linked with the dreams of centuries” 

The NASA leadership had been closely involved in the political and scientific groundwork for Kennedy’s decision and had approved the project’s feasibility. The engineers on the ground, on the other hand, were initially flabbergasted at the confidence they were being shown and the enormous demands placed on them. They had just barely, with great difficulty, carried out Alan Shepard’s suborbital space flight, which, compared to a trip to the moon, was a mere piece of cake.

Kennedy was certainly not blind to the enormity of the task he had created for NASA and the American people. Having set a course for America over deep waters towards unknown shores he concluded his speech with the prayer "And, therefore, as we set sail, we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."

"And, therefore, as we set sail, we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.” (John F. Kennedy)

Let us close this post with the words of John M. Logsdon who speculated in 1970[1] with almost prophetic wisdom that

"Perhaps we will find that the lunar landing decision was a unique occurrence, a once-in-a-generation phenomenon in which a heterogeneous mixture of factors almost coincidentally [! ed.] converged to create a national commitment and enough momentum to support that commitment through to its fulfillment."

[1] John M. Logsdon, The Decision to Go to the Moon, 1970, ISBN:0 26212033 X (p. 136 and p. 106).
[2] Moon address to Congress, https://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/jfk_speech_text.html.
[3] Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy, 1965, ISBN:0-8317-5710-8