Operation Moonglow

by Teasel Muir-Harmony

  33. National Security Council, “Discussion at the 339th Meeting.”

  34. Bruce Lambert, “L. Arthur Larson Is Dead at 82; Top Eisenhower Aide and Writer,” New York Times, April 1, 1993, 24; George Dixon, “Washington Scene…: ‘Be-Beastly-to-USIA Week,’” Washington Post, June 10, 1957, A13.

  35. National Security Council, “Discussion at the 339th Meeting.”

  36. Divine, The Sputnik Challenge, 21.

  37. Lewis, “The Red Stuff,” 83.

  38. Siddiqi, Red Rockets’ Glare, 360; Lewis, “The Red Stuff,” 84.

  39. Georgy Grechko, interview with James J. Harford in Harford, “Korolev’s Triple Play,” 86.

  40. “World Opinion and the Soviet Satellite,” October 17, 1957, Box 9, Folder “Satellites—Sputnik,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA. See also Cull, The Cold War, 135.

  41. NSC 5501, titled “Basic National Security Policy,” January 6, 1955. Not printed. See FRUS, 1955–1957, vol. IX, Foreign Economic Policy; Foreign Information Program, Document 190; James Schwoch, “The Cold War, the Space Race, and the Globalization of Public Opinion Polling” (paper presented at the International Studies Association Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 24–28, 2002); “Memorandum of Discussion at the 235th Meeting of the National Security Council, Thursday, February 3, 1955,” Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Korea, volume XXIII, part 2.

  42. Mark Haefele, “John F. Kennedy, USIA, and World Public Opinion,” Diplomatic History 25, no. 1 (2001): 67.

  43. “World Opinion and the Soviet Satellite,” October 17, 1957. See also Cull, The Cold War, 135.

  44. “World Opinion and the Soviet Satellite.”

  45. By April, the postmaster general included a seat on the stamp advisory committee for a representative from the USIA.

  46. Cull, The Cold War, 144–145.

  47. Statement by George V. Allen before the House Science and Astronautics Committee, January 22, 1960, Box 12, Folder “USIA: Background Material from Media for Dir. Allen Appearance Before House Science and Astronautics Committee, 1960,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  48. The OCB, created by Eisenhower in 1953, reported directly to the National Security Council and was staffed by the under secretary of state, deputy director of defense, director of the CIA, and the president’s special assistant for psychological warfare, among other high-level officials. Eisenhower had tasked the OCB with implementing national security policies while also initiating proposals to the NSC. William Traum, letter to Abbott Washburn, October 21, 1957, Box 9, P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  49. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Executive Order 10483—Establishing the Operations Coordinating Board,” American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234438.

  50. Operations Coordinating Board, “Guide Lines for Public Information on the U.S. and Soviet Scientific Earth Satellite Programs,” November 13, 1957, Box 7, Folder “OCB—Course of Action Relating to the Public Information Aspects of Soviet Man-in-Space Program,” RG 306, Entry P 243, NARA.

  51. “Atomium,” the major centerpiece of the fair, symbolized this enthusiasm and optimism for the role of science in modern life in the late 1950s. Standing tall above the exposition grounds, the metallic atomic-inspired structure housed a restaurant and panoramic tower.

  52. Robert C. Hickok, “Comments on Brussels World’s Fair,” November 8, 1957, Box 1, Program and Media Studies, RG 306, NARA; Susan Reid, “The Soviet Pavilion at Brussels ’58: Convergence, Conversion, Critical Assimilation, or Transculturation?,” in The Cold War International History Project, ed. Christian F. Ostermann (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2010).

  53. Robert H. Haddow, Pavilions of Plenty: Exhibiting American Culture Abroad in the 1950s (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), 85–88.

  54. Osgood, Total Cold War, 343–344.

  55. Osgood, Total Cold War, 344.

  56. Gregory Kulacki and Jeffrey G. Lewis, “A Place for One’s Mat: China’s Space Program, 1956–2003,” research paper, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2009, 13.

  57. Amy Nelson, “Cold War Celebrity and the Courageous Canine Scout: The Life and Times of Soviet Space Dogs,” in Into the Cosmos: Space Exploration and Soviet Culture, ed. James T. Andrews and Asif Siddiqi (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011), 139–141; Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs, Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle (New York: Springer, 2007), 156–161.

  58. Walter Briggs, “U.S. Prestige in Asia Continues to Decline,” Washington Post, November 6, 1957, A3.

  59. “Barbarism with Sputniks,” New York Times, November 4, 1957, 28.

  60. “A Birthday Flexing of Red Biceps,” Life, November 18, 1957, 35.

  61. Affiliates of International Research Associates of New York conducted the survey. Research and Reference Service, “Recent Trends in Latin American Opinion Toward the United States and the Soviet Union, Report #16, October, 1958,” RG 306, Box 2, Entry 1010, NARA; Office of Research and Intelligence, “Trends in Japanese Attitudes Following the Launching of Sputniks I and II and Explorer I,” Report #16, July, 1968, Box 1, Entry 1010, RG 306, NARA; Research and Reference Service, “Post-Sputnik Attitudes Toward NATO and Western Defense, February 1958,” RG 306, Box 5, Entry 1010, NARA; USIA 9th Review of Operations, July 1–December 31, 1957, 2; Cull, The Cold War, 150.

  62. William J. Jorden, “Khrushchev Asks East-West Talks to End ‘Cold War,’” New York Times, November 7, 1957, 1.

  63. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 261.

  64. Taubman, Khrushchev, 300.

  65. “A Proposal for a ‘Giant Step,’” Life, November 18, 1957, 53.

  66. George V. Allen stepped in to direct the USIA in Larson’s place. Cull, The Cold War, 148–149.

  67. David L. Stebenne, Modern Republican: Arthur Larson and the Eisenhower Years (Bloomington; Indiana University Press, 2006), 202–203.

  68. Divine, The Sputnik Challenge, 45.

  69. “Moment in History: President Speaks as the Citizens Listen,” Life, November 18, 1957, 40.

  70. Wang, In Sputnik’s Shadow, 13.

  71. Stebenne, Modern Republican, 202–203.

  72. Caro, Master of the Senate, 1027–1028.

  73. Day, “Cover Stories,” 180; McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth, 154.

  74. Quoted in Schwoch, Global TV, 52.

  75. Cull, The Cold War, 150.

  76. Harford, “Korolev’s Triple Play,” 87.

  77. “Capitol Dismayed at Test Failure,” New York Times, December 7, 1957.

  78. Constance McLaughlin Green and Milton Lomask, Vanguard: A History, NASA SP-4202 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971), chapter 11.

  CHAPTER 3: A SPACE PROGRAM FOR ALL HUMANKIND, 1958–1960

  1. Oliver M. Gale was the special assistant to the secretary of defense and was responsible for coordinating interviews of Pentagon officials for Johnson’s hearing. Gale, “Post-Sputnik Washington,” 227.

  2. Oliver M. Gale Papers, 1957–1960, 1971, 1974, DEPL.

  3. Caro, Master of the Senate, 842.

  4. Note, Reedy for LBJ, October 17, 1957, cited in McDougall, Heavens and the Earth, 148–149.

  5. Note, Reedy for LBJ.

  6. Johnson and Eisenhower, quoted in Caro, Master of the Senate, 1022.

  7. Gerald Siegel oral history interview by John Logsdon, “Proceedings of an Oral History Workshop Conducted April 3, 1992 on the Legislative Origins of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958,” Monographs in Aerospace History 8 (Washington, DC: NASA History Office, 1998); Caro, Master of the Senate, 304–350.

  8. Caro, Master of the Senate, 1022–1023.

  9. Galloway first took a position on the Hill in 1941, beginning in the Legislative Reference Service and then moving to the Congressional Research Service. Interview of Eileen Galloway by Rebecca Wright, Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, August 7, 2000, https://history collection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histor
ies/NASA_HQ/Herstory/GallowayE/EG_8–7-00.pdf.

  10. John W. Finney, “President and Aides Study Reports on Soviet’s Feat,” New York Times, November 5, 1957, 1.

  11. William M. Blair, “Senators to Open Wide Inquiry on Missile and Satellite Program,” New York Times, November 6, 1957, 12.

  12. Divine, The Johnson Years, 2:223; “Excerpts from the Comments of Senator Johnson, Dr. Teller and Dr. Bush,” New York Times, November 26, 1957, 20; Michael J. Neufeld, Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (New York: Vintage, 2007), 317.

  13. Barry M. Horstman, “Neil McElroy; He Served at P&G, Pentagon,” Cincinnati Post, July 7, 1999, 1B; Gale, “Post-Sputnik Washington,” 232.

  14. Gale, “Post-Sputnik Washington,” 228–232.

  15. Caro, Master of the Senate, 1024–1025.

  16. Galloway interview.

  17. Dallek, Lone Star Rising, 532.

  18. Hitchcock, The Age of Eisenhower, 376; “Man of the Year,” Time, January 6, 1958.

  19. Divine, The Johnson Years, 2:224.

  20. Caro, Master of the Senate, 1020.

  21. Johnson speech to Democratic Caucus, January 7, 1958, “Statement of Democratic Leader Lyndon B. Johnson to the Meeting of the Democratic Conference,” Statements of LBJ, Box 23, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, TX (hereafter LBJL).

  22. George Reedy, quoted in Caro, Master of the Senate, 1028.

  23. Galloway interview.

  24. Johnson, Vantage Point, 274.

  25. Quoted in Roger Launius, NASA: The History of the US Civil Space Program (Malabar, FL: Krieger, 2001), 29. See also “Inquiry into Satellite and Missile Programs: Hearings Before the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, Eighty-Fifth Congress, First and Second Sessions” (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1958); Thomas M. Gaskin, “Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, the Eisenhower Administration and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1957–60,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 24, no. 2 (1994): 348.

  26. Most coverage around the world highlighted German rocketry contributions to the first US satellite while downplaying von Braun’s Nazi past. “Daily Report: Foreign Radio Broadcasts Supplement: World Reaction Series, No. 3—1958: World Radio and Press Reaction to Launching of American Earth Satellite,” Box 9, Folder “Satellites—Explorer,” RG 306, Entry P 243, NARA; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, “1st Annual Report to Congress,” House Document Number 71, 86th Congress, 1st Session, February 2, 1959.

  27. “A Report on United States Foreign Operations,” Box 9, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  28. Nedville E. Nordness, letter to USIA Washington, February 14, 1958, Box 9, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  29. Newspapers that drew on USIS material included Illustrierte Berliner Zeitschrift, Telegraf-Wochenspiegel, Berliner Morgenpost, Koelnische Rundschau, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Muenchner Merkur, Passaur Neue Presse, and Revue. Nordness letter.

  30. Nordness letter.

  31. USIS Tehran to USIA Washington, June 11, 1958, Box 9, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  32. Office of Research and Intelligence, “Trends in Japanese Attitudes”; Research and Reference Service, “Recent Trends in Latin American Opinion.”

  33. Gaskin, “Senator Lyndon B. Johnson.”

  34. Nixon is paraphrased in L. A. Minnich Jr.’s notes, “Legislative Leadership Meeting, Supplementary Notes,” February 4, 1958, in Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, ed. John M. Logsdon et al. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1995), 1:631.

  35. The American Rocket Society and the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel also pushed for a new separate civilian space agency. See Cull, The Cold War, 152; President’s Advisory Committee on Government Organization, Executive Office of the President, Memorandum for the President, “Organization for Civil Space Programs,” March 5, 1958, 3. Eisenhower expressed concern that locating US space activities within the military might increase competition among the branches for funding. Glen P. Wilson, “Lyndon Johnson and the Legislative Origins of NASA,” Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives 25 (Winter 1993): 362–372; Hitchcock, The Age of Eisenhower, 393.

  36. Joseph M. Goldsen and Leon Lipson, “Some Political Implications of the Space Age,” RAND P-1435, February 24, 1958.

  37. Vanguard 1 would help prove that the Earth was slightly pear-shaped, not a perfect sphere. USIA Press and Publications Service Monthly Report, March 1958, Box 4, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; Loyd S. Swenson Jr., James M. Grimwood, and Charles C. Alexander, This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury (Washington, DC: NASA Special Publication, 1989), 30.

  38. USIS Santiago to USIA Washington, March 31, 1958, Box 9, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  39. “Four Objects Reported in Sputnik Orbit,” Aviation Week, May 26, 1958, 28–29.

  40. McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth, 250–251.

  41. Taubman, Khrushchev, 378–380.

  42. Divine, The Sputnik Challenge, 191.

  43. In the current version of the act the word “mankind” has been replaced with the more inclusive “humankind.” National Aeronautics and Space Act, Public Law No. 111–314, 124 Stat. 3328 (December 18, 2010); original version Sec. 102 (a), “The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958,” Public Law No. 85–568.

  44. Franklin Roosevelt’s attempt to internationalize the New Deal through the Atlantic Charter reflected the beginning stages of the new position in international affairs, one in which the United States would establish New Deal–style policies and multilateral institutions outside its national borders. Although the New Deal laid the groundwork for America’s relationship to the world after World War II, it was the experience of the war, and the way the war ended in particular, that shaped postwar international relations. After World War II, as the United States assumed a position of world economic, cultural, and military power, and after having fought the “good war,” many Americans became convinced of their nation’s essential goodness, benevolence, and duty in world affairs. This outlook infused US foreign policy in this period and can be observed in lines such as the Space Act’s “for all mankind.” Elizabeth Borgwardt, A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 6; Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War (New York: University of Cambridge Press, 2006), 20; Gary Gerstle, American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 187.

  45. John Krige, “NASA as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy,” in Societal Impact of Spaceflight, ed. Steven J. Dick and Roger D. Launius (Washington, DC: NASA, 2007), 207–218.

  46. These employees came from the following NACA laboratories: Langley Aeronautical Laboratory at Hampton, Virginia; Ames Aeronautical Laboratory at Moffett Field, California; the Flight Research Center near Muroc Dry Lake, California; and the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio. See Sylvia K. Kraemer, “Organizing for Exploration,” in Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, ed. John M. Logsdon et al. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1995), 1:661.

  47. Report to the Congress from the President of the United States, U.S. Aeronautics and Space Activities, January 1 to December 31, 1959 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960).

  48. Office of Program Planning and Evaluation, “The Long-Range Plan of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,” December 16, 1969, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

  49. The director of the USIA was a member of the Operations Coordinating Board of the Outer Space Working Group as well as the National Security Council and participated in matters concerning space policy in these forums. “USIA Policy on Space,” undated, Box 12, Folder “USIA: 1962 Proposals & Suggestions from all elements on Science Prog.,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; “USIA Participation in Space Policy Activities,” December 21, 1960, Folder �
�US-USSR Outer Space Race,” Box 13, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  50. Goodwin had also discussed this approach with NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan and his special assistant Frank Phillips the week before he met with Bonney. Harold Goodwin to Walter Bonney, November 26, 1958, Box 6, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  51. Harold L. Goodwin paper on the USIA science program, June 22, 1958, Box 4, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  52. Cull, The Cold War, 152.

  53. Goodwin paper on the USIA science program.

  54. “U.S. Information Agency Basic Guidance and Planning, Paper No. 4,” November 18, 1958, Box 12, Folder “USIA: 1962 Proposals & Suggestions from All Elements on Science Prog.,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  55. “U.S. Information Agency Basic Guidance and Planning, Paper No. 4.”

  56. Goodwin paper on the USIA science program.

  57. “U.S. Information Agency Basic Guidance and Planning, Paper No. 4.”

  58. Hitchcock, The Age of Eisenhower, 406.

  59. Dallek, Lone Star Rising, 531.

  60. In 1959 the USIA distributed more than a hundred news releases on space activities in addition to more than a million pamphlets and posters. USIS posts received negatives, prints, lithographs, and plastic printing plates. These materials were complemented by daily news roundups, a series of television documentaries, and newsreel clips. The USIA filled its satellite libraries with books and pamphlets on space exploration. Statement by George V. Allen before the House Science and Astronautics Committee, 22 January 1960, Box 12, Folder “USIA: Background Material from Media for Dir. Allen Appearance before House Science and Astronautics Committee, 1960,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA. Report to the Congress from the President of the United States.

  61. Robert Sivard to Harold Goodwin, April 7, 1960, Box 11, Folder “Space Exploration,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  62. Allen statement.

  63. The USIA produced nineteen copies of this exhibit in 1958 and continued to tour them around the world through 1960. In 1959 “Space Unlimited” was shown in Italy, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Spain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel, Greece, Morocco, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Finland, Denmark, The Hague, Laos, Malaya, Burma, the Philippines, Thailand, Sweden, Norway, and Japan; Allen statement.