Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

418 Project Apollo: Americans to the Moon
in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special
capacity— in the field of space— there is room for new cooperation . . .
I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Why,
therefore, should man’s first flight to the moon be a matter of national
competition? . . . Surely we should explore whether the scientists and
astronauts of our two countries— indeed of all the world— cannot work
together in the conquest of space, sending some day in this decade to
the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but representatives
of all our countries. 48
Kennedy’s proposal was greeted with dismay by many of those who had been
Apollo’s strongest supporters. For example, Congressman Albert Thomas sent
a handwritten note to the president the day after the speech, saying that “the
press and many private individuals seized upon your offer to cooperate with the
Russians in a moon shot as a weakening of your former position of a forthright
and strong effort in lunar landings.” Thomas asked the president for “a letter
clarifying your position with reference to our immediate effort in this regard.” 49
Kennedy replied to Thomas on 23 September. (II-39) He told Thomas “if
cooperation is possible, we mean to cooperate, and we shall do so from a position
made strong and solid by our national effort in space. If cooperation is not
possible—and as realists we must plan for this contingency too—then the same
strong national effort will serve all free men’s interest in space, and protect us
also against possible hazards to our national security.”
There were suggestions in the aftermath of the president’s speech that it was
a public relations move or a way of justifying a withdrawal of the United States
from a fast-paced lunar landing program. Countering these suggestions is the fact
that in the weeks following the United Nations speech, the White House Office
of Science and Technology examined ways to turn the president’s proposal into
reality, even as Nikita Khrushchev on 26 October told a group of visiting journalists
that the Soviet Union had no plans to send people to the Moon. For example,
on 29 October, Science Advisor Jerome Wiesner provided a memorandum for
Kennedy proposing “a joint program in which the USSR provides unmanned
exploratory and logistic support for the U.S. Apollo manned landing.” (II-40)
Wiesner suggested that such a plan be quickly offered to the Soviet Union in
light of Khrushchev’s statement. Wiesner noted “if the proposal is accepted we
will have established a practical basis for cooperative program. If it is rejected
we will have demonstrated our desire for peaceful cooperation and the sincerity
of our original proposal.” Following on Wiesner’s suggestion, on 12 November,
President Kennedy signed a National Security Action Memorandum directing
James Webb “to assume personally the initiative and central responsibility within
the Government for the development of a program of substantive cooperation
48. Ibid, p. 695.
49. Letter from Albert Thomas (signed only “Thomas”), 21 September1963. National Security
Files, Box 308, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.