John F Kennedy longed for USSR to spice up space race

President John F. Kennedy feared the space race had "lost its glamour" during his final months, and longed for the USSR to put up more of a fight to excite the American public, it has emerged.


20 February 1962: President John F Kennedy speaks to astronaut John Glenn after he became the first American to orbit the Earth Photo: Sipa Press / Rex Features







By Jon Swaine, New York 3:02PM BST 25 May 2011 Follow Jon Swaine on Twitter
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In a September 1963 White House meeting, the US president said he feared he was spending "a hell of a lot of dough to go to the moon," and would get none of the credit if the mission were a success.

"If I get re-elected, I'm not – we're not – going to the moon in my – in our period, are we?", he asked Jim Webb, his NASA administrator. Mr Webb confirmed a landing would not be possible that quickly.

"It's become a political struggle now," the president said. "We've got to hold this thing, god damn it".

The conversation, which took place nine weeks before Mr Kennedy was assassinated in Texas, is preserved among 260 hours of recordings being reviewed by the Kennedy Presidential Library.

It was released yesterday, on the 50th anniversary of a speech in which Mr Kennedy promised that the US would reach the moon by the end of the 1960s.

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He warned no other mission would be "so difficult or expensive". Yet two years later he feared voters would not accept the cost, which ended up at $25.4 billion – about $125 billion (£77 billion) today.
"I don't think the space programme has much political positives," Mr Kennedy tells Mr Webb on the recording, before thinking of one way that Americans might be persuaded: patriotism.
"I mean if the Russians do some tremendous feat, then it would stimulate interest again, but right now space has lost a lot of its glamour," he said.
After being assured by Mr Webb that the mission was no "stunt", the president resolved to sell it as being crucial to national security. "I want to get the military shield over this thing," he said.
In July 1969 – under the presidency of Richard Nixon, a Republican – Apollo 11, commanded by Neil Armstrong, landed people on the Moon for the first time.