BOSTON
(AP) — After setting a soaring vision to land a man on the moon,
President John F. Kennedy struggled with how to sell the public on a
costly space program he worried had “lost its glamour” and had scant
political benefits, according to a newly released White House tape.
Kennedy
and NASA Administrator James Webb hashed out how to strengthen public
backing for the mission, such as by highlighting its technological
benefits and military uses.
And
in a scenario that echoes today, the two worried about preserving
funding amid what Webb calls a “driving desire to cut the budget,”
according to the tape recorded two months before Kennedy was
assassinated.
“It’s
become a political struggle now,” Kennedy says, near the end of the
46-minute tape. “We’ve got to hold this thing, goddamn it.”
The
Sept. 18, 1963, conversation is among 260 hours of White House
recordings that archivists at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
and Museum have been reviewing in chronological order.
Its
release Wednesday comes on the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s May 25,
1961, speech in which he made his famous call to reach the moon by
decade’s end. While that speech is remembered for its ambition, it also
included a caveat that “no single space project in this period … will
be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”
In
the tape recorded more than two years later, Kennedy and Webb are heard
dealing with that reality. With the 1964 election approaching, Kennedy
frets a massive program that’s not making obvious advances will prove a
liability.
“I don’t think the space program has much political positives,” Kennedy tells Webb.
The
president seems to lament that the rival Russians haven’t made the
progress in their half of the space race that could bring needed
attention to America’s program.
“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,”
Kennedy said.
Webb
acknowledges that the tens of billions of dollars spent over a decade
made the program a target for lawmakers. But he repeatedly pushes its
merits, including spurring technological advances he says will vastly
expand the country’s economic might.
“I think it’s going to generate the technology that’s going to make a difference for this country far beyond space,” Webb says.
At
one point, Kennedy challenges Webb to answer, “Do you think the lunar,
manned landing on the moon is a good idea?” The president also asks for
and receives assurances from Webb that sending a man to the moon isn’t
just a “stunt” that will yield the same advances as sending scientific
instruments to the moon’s surface for billions less.
Kennedy
and Webb then agree it’s crucial to emphasize the space program’s
importance to the military and national security, or risk it being
considered wasteful.
“The heat’s going to go on unless we can say this has got some military justification and not just prestige,” Kennedy says.
“I
think it’s the only way we’re going to be able to defend it before the
public in the next 12 months,” Kennedy says. “I want to get the military
shield over this thing.”
Maura
Porter, a John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum archivist,
said the tape offers a look at the pragmatism behind Kennedy’s vision
for America’s future in space. Kennedy’s prime motivations for pushing
the program were far less practical than what he knew would fly with the
public or with Congress, she said.
“He loved the idea of being adventurers and being explorers,” Porter said.
Porter
said some historians have speculated Kennedy would have backed away
from the space program if he won a second term. But the tape indicates
he was hoping to be in office when America reached the moon.
On
the tape, Kennedy asks Webb if there’s any chance the lunar landing
will happen during a second term. Webb says no, and the president sounds
deflated.
“It’s just going to take longer than that,” Webb says. “This is a tough job, a real tough job.”
SOURCE: The Associated Press