Operation Moonglow

by Teasel Muir-Harmony

  79. Nixon, Inaugural Address.

  80. Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 95; Richard Nixon, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), 366.

  81. Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 99.

  82. Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 99.

  83. Borman, Countdown, 260.

  84. Borman, Countdown, 226.

  85. William Safire, Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), 147.

  86. William Rogers to Frank Borman, March 27, 1969, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files, 1967–1969, Science, Box 3017, NARA. Borman’s itinerary: London, Feb. 2–5; Paris, Feb. 5–7; Brussels, Feb. 7–10; The Hague, Feb. 10–11; Bonn, Feb. 11–12; West Berlin, Feb. 12–13; Rome, Feb. 13–17; Madrid, Feb. 17–19; and Lisbon, Feb. 19–21. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969, 37.

  87. Richard Moose to Herb Klein, January 27, 1969, National Security Council Files: Names Files, Box 808, Folder “Borman, Frank,” RNPL.

  88. W. E. Weld Jr. (IAE) to Robert W. Akers, December 19, 1968, RG 306, Entry A1 42, Box 4, NARA; Thomas Paine, Acting Administrator NASA, to Charles E. Bohlen, Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the Department of State, January 3, 1969, RG 306, Entry A1 42, Box 4, NARA.

  89. Borman interview; Borman, Countdown, 227.

  90. John M. Lee, “Borman Blasts Off Smoothly as Envoy to Britain,” New York Times, February 4, 1969, 4.

  91. “Queen Welcomes Colonel Borman: Astronaut Who Saw Moon Sees Buckingham Palace,” Sun, February 5, 1969, 2; Borman, Countdown, 228.

  92. Bourgin notes on the Apollo 8 tour, Box 4; Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969, 38.

  93. Borman, Countdown, 229.

  94. Simon Bourgin to Mariada Bourgin, February 5, 1969, Box 4, Simon Bourgin Collection, BUA.

  95. Simon Bourgin to Mariada Bourgin, February 7, 1969, Box 4, Simon Bourgin Collection, BUA; Garrison, “De Gaulle Calls Borman,” 3; Patricia Pullan, “Parisians Agog over Astronaut: Crowds Queue to Get Look at Borman, Apollo 8 Hero,” Sun, February 7, 1969, A1; “Borman Sees Grandson of Jules Verne,” Los Angeles Times, February 6, 1969, A12; Poole, Earthrise, 33.

  96. Nixon, Memoirs, 370.

  97. US Ambassador Sargent Shriver to State Department, February 9, 1969, RG 59, Entry 1613, Box 3017, NARA.

  98. Bourgin notes on the Apollo 8 tour, Box 4; Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969, 47.

  99. US Embassy Brussels to State Department, February 21, 1969, RG 59, Entry 1613, Box 3017, NARA.

  100. US Embassy Brussels to State Department, February 21, 1969; Bourgin notes on the Apollo 8 tour, Box 4; US Embassy Brussels to State Department, February 21, 1969, RG 59, Entry 1613, Box 3017, NARA.

  101. US Embassy Brussels to State Department, February 21, 1969; Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969, 46; Bourgin notes on the Apollo 8 tour, Box 4.

  102. Simon Bourgin to Mariada Bourgin, undated, Box 4, Simon Bourgin Collection, BUA; US Embassy Brussels to State Department, February 21, 1969.

  103. Th. H. Joekes, “Hero Anno 1969,” Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, February 11, 1969, translated by the US Embassy Brussels, US Embassy Brussels to State Department, February 21, 1969, RG 59, Entry 1613, Box 3017, NARA.

  104. Simon Bourgin to Mariada Bourgin, Thursday night ???, February 1969, Box 4, Simon Bourgin Collection, BUA.

  105. Poole, Earthrise, 132.

  106. US Embassy Rome to State Department, February 7, 1969, RG 59, Entry 1613, Box 3017, NARA; “Pope, Praising Bravery, Greets Borman and Family,” New York Times, February 16, 1969, 20.

  107. Bourgin notes on the Apollo 8 tour, Box 4.

  108. USIS Madrid to USIA and NASA, February 17, 1969, Box 4, Simon Bourgin Collection, BUA.

  109. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969, 52.

  110. Bourgin notes on the Apollo 8 tour, Box 4; Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969, 54.

  111. Bourgin notes on the Apollo 8 tour, Box 4.

  112. Nixon, Memoirs, 370; H. R. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1994), 31, 34.

  113. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 31–34; Richard Reeves, President Nixon: Alone in the White House (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 48; Robert J. McMahon, The Limits of Empire: The United States and Southeast Asia Since World War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 161.

  114. Atlantic Consultation: President Nixon in Europe, February 23-March 2, 1969 (Washington, DC: Department of State, Office of Media Services, Bureau of Public Affairs, 1969), 3, 5.

  115. Atlantic Consultation, 5; Safire, Before the Fall, 125.

  116. Haldeman, Haldeman Diaries, 33–34; McMahon, The Limits of Empire, 161; Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, “Waging War on All Fronts: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Vietnam War, 1969–1972,” in Nixon in the World: American Foreign Relations, 1969–1977, ed. Fredrik Logevall and Andrew Preston (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 188–189.

  117. Nixon, Memoirs, 374.

  CHAPTER 8: MAKING APOLLO 11 FOR ALL HUMANKIND, 1969

  1. Reinhardt began his education in Tennessee’s segregated school system, graduating from Knoxville College in 1939. After serving in WWII, he obtained a PhD in American Literature from the University of Wisconsin on the GI Bill. Martin Weil, “John E. Reinhardt, First Career Diplomat to Lead USIA, Dies at 95,” Washington Post, February 24, 2016; Richard T. Arndt, The First Resort of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), 500–501.

  2. John E. Reinhardt to USIA Public Affairs Officers, June 10, 1969, Box 18, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  3. Stanley Moss to Simon Bourgin, March 7, 1969, Entry 243, Box 28, RG 306, NARA.

  4. William Kling, “Moon Landing Trio Named,” Chicago Tribune, January 10, 1969, 1.

  5. Frank Borman to Richard Nixon, July 14, 1969, “EX OS 3–1 Astronauts Begin 7/31/69,” Box 11, Subject Files: Outer Space, White House Central Files, RNPL.

  6. Apollo 9 Mission Report, MSC-PA-R-69–2, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Houston, TX: Manned Spacecraft Center, May 1969).

  7. Collins, Carrying the Fire, 321.

  8. Albert E. Hemsing to Mr. Ryan, February 27, 1969, Box 18, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  9. “USIA 32nd Report to Congress 1–6/1969,” Box 1, Reports to Congress (hereafter Entry P 180), RG 306, NARA.

  10. In his essay on Project Apollo, Michael L. Smith argues that the “media coverage of Apollo was the event… never before had so ambitious an undertaking depended so thoroughly on its public presentation for significance.” Building on Smith’s observation about Project Apollo media coverage within the United States, this chapter sets out to examine public presentation of the flight within a global context. See Michael L. Smith, “Selling the Moon: The U.S. Manned Space Program and the Triumph of Commodity Scientism,” in The Culture of Consumption, ed. Richard Wightman Fox and Jackson Lears (New York: Pantheon, 1983), 177.

  11. USIS Iran to USIA Washington, June 3, 1969, Box 17, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  12. American Consulate, Istanbul to the Secretary of State, June 23, 1969, Box 17, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  13. USIA to All USIS Posts, May 13, 1969, Box 18, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  14. Willis Shapley to George Mueller, April 19, 1969, Document II–70 in Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, ed. John Logsdon et al. (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2008), 730.

  15. Charles Spencer (IOP/RA) to Mr. Ryan, May 19, 1969, Box 18, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  16. Mr. Bardos to Mr. Hedges, April 9, 1969, Box 18, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; Anne M. Platoff, “Where No Flag Has Gone Before: Political and Technical Aspects of Placing a Flag on the Moon,” NASA Contractor Report 188251, 1993.

  17. John P. Walsh, Acting Executive Secretary Department of State, memorandum for Henry Kissinger, the White House, June 8, 1969, Box 3013, Entry 1613,
RG 59, NARA. For a discussion of the history and significance of planting a US flag on the moon, see Anne M. Platoff, “Where No Flag Has Gone Before: Political and Technical Aspects of Placing a Flag on the Moon,” NASA Contractor Report 188251, www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/flag/flag.htm; Daniel Immerwahr, “Twilight of Empire,” Modern American History 1, no. 1 (2018): 129–133.

  18. Charles McC. Mathias Jr. to William P. Rogers, June 19, 1969, Box 3013, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA.

  19. Simon Bourgin to Mr. Ryan, April 14, 1969, Box 18, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  20. Muir-Harmony, Apollo to the Moon, 182–185.

  21. Collins, Carrying the Fire, 336.

  22. All of the messages on the disk are reproduced in Tahir Rahman, We Came in Peace for All Mankind: The Untold Story of the Apollo 11 Silicon Disc (Overland Park, KS: Leathers, 2008).

  23. NASA etched these messages alongside statements made by Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon; the names of leaders in Congress and a list of members of the four committees of the House and Senate that participated in the NASA legislation; and the names of NASA past and present administrators, deputy administrators, and other high-level managers. The words “From Planet Earth—July 1969” banded the top of the disk while the inscription “Goodwill messages from around the world brought to the Moon by the astronauts of Apollo 11” reemphasized the international character of the mission. The messages were photographed and reduced 200 times. Silicon was chosen because of its stability and the ability to withstand the extreme temperature range on the moon. NASA Press Release 69-83F, “Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages,” July 13, 1969, NASA Headquarters History Office, Washington, DC; Thomas Paine to U. Alexis Johnson, July 11, 1969, Box 3013, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA.

  24. Willis H. Shapley to Dr. Mueller, “Symbolic Activities for Apollo 11,” July 2, 1969, Document II-71 in Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, ed. John Logsdon et al. (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2008), 733.

  25. John Reinhardt to Hewson Ryan, July 25, 1969, Box 20, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  26. CBS Television Network, 10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/1969 (New York: Columbia Broadcasting System, 1970), 93.

  27. Muir-Harmony, Apollo to the Moon, 108–111; Collins, Carrying the Fire, 333–334.

  28. Apollo 10 Mission Report, MSC-00126, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Houston, TX: Manned Spacecraft Center, August 1969), https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/pdf/a10-mission-report.pdf.

  29. Sunday Telegraph, quoted in Apollo 11 Operations Center to Frank Shakespeare, June 6, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  30. M. V. Kamath, “First Colour Telecast of the Moon,” Times of India, May 23, 1969, 11.

  31. USIA memo for all USIS posts; Apollo 11 Operations Center to Frank Shakespeare, June 6, 1969.

  32. “VOA Coverage on the Flight of Apollo XI, 1969,” September 11, 1969, Box 18, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; Apollo 11 Operations Office to Frank Shakespeare, June 27, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  33. Collins, Carrying the Fire, 344.

  34. Collins, Carrying the Fire, 344–347.

  35. Frank Shakespeare to John L. McClellan, August 28, 1969, Box 4, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA; Apollo 11 Operations Center to Frank Shakespeare, June 6, 1969.

  36. Apollo Operation Center to Henry Loomis, August 6, 1969, Box 15, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; Henry Dunlap to Harry Loomis, November 18, 1968, Box 4, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA; “USIA 32nd Report to Congress.”

  37. Apollo 11 Operations Office to Mr. Shakespeare, June 27, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  38. The kiosk exhibits included a six-foot-tall, three-sided structure outfitted with blinking lights, music, photogelatin transparencies, and posters. Henry Loomis to William Rogers, June 30, 1969, Box 1, Office of Policy and Plans: Subject Files, 1966–1971 (hereafter Entry P 12), RG 306, NARA; Report to the Congress from the President of the United States, US Aeronautics and Space Activities for 1969.

  39. “USIA 32nd Report to Congress”; Apollo 11 Operations Office to Frank Shakespeare, July 23, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA; John Reinhardt to Hewson Ryan, July 25, 1969, Box 20, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  40. USIA Circular, May 19, 1969, Box 17, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; Apollo Operation Center to Loomis, August 6, 1969; Karl E. Meyer, “Poland Parades Guns on 25th Birthday,” Washington Post, July 23, 1969, A12.

  41. Apollo Operation Center to Loomis, August 6, 1969.

  42. “Special International Exhibitions 7th Annual Report FY 1969,” Box 3, Entry P 173, RG 306, NARA.

  43. “Special International Exhibitions 8th Annual Report FY 1970,” Box 3, Entry P 173, RG 306, NARA.

  44. “Special International Exhibitions 7th Annual Report FY 1969”; “Special International Exhibitions 8th Annual Report FY 1970.”

  45. “USIA 32nd Report to Congress.”

  46. Apollo Operation Center to Loomis, August 6, 1969.

  47. “USIA 32nd Report to Congress.”

  48. David J. Whalen, “For All Mankind: Societal Impact of Application Satellites,” in Societal Impact of Spaceflight, ed. Steven J. Dick and Roger D. Launius (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2007), 289–312.

  49. Schwoch, Global TV, 147.

  50. An estimated forty million American homes tuned in to coverage of John Glenn’s flight. Schwoch, Global TV, 127.

  51. Schwoch, Global TV, 145.

  52. Val Adams, “Pastore Predicts TV Links for All,” New York Times, April 22, 1965, 67.

  53. Schwoch, Global TV, 149.

  54. Tsiao, “Read You Loud and Clear!,” chapter 5.

  55. “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 25, 1969, Box 21, Folder “INF 7-6 Apollo 11 Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  56. Apollo 11 Operations Office to Frank Shakespeare, June 13, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  57. Erik Tandberg, interview with author, May 29, 2017, Oslo, Norway.

  58. Apollo Operation Center to Loomis, August 6, 1969.

  59. “USIA 32nd Report to Congress.”

  60. Apollo 11 Operations Office to Shakespeare, June 27, 1969.

  61. Apollo 11 Operations Center to Loomis, August 6, 1969.

  CHAPTER 9: ONE GIANT LEAP, JULY 16–JULY 24, 1969

  1. “Million Visitors to Witness Apollo 11 Take-Off,” Times of India, July 15, 1969, 12; Norman Ferguson, Project Apollo: The Moon Odyssey Explained (Stroud: History Press, 2019), 109; Bernard Weinraub, “Tourists Crowd Cocoa Beach as Apollo Countdown Begins,” New York Times, July 11, 1969, 1.

  2. Jerry E. Bishop, “Localities Near Site of Moon Launch Gird for Onlooker Influx,” Wall Street Journal, July 14, 1969, 11; William Greider, “Protestors, VIPs Flood Cape Area,” Washington Post, July 16, 1969, A1.

  3. Thomas Paine memorandum for record, July 17, 1969, NASA Historical Reference Collection. They sang “We Shall Overcome” while walking beside wagons drawn by mules they had named Jim Eastland and George Wallace after pro-segregationist southern politicians. The protest sought to draw attention to poverty in America, specifically that one-fifth of Americans lacked adequate shelter, food, clothing, and medical care. NASA Administrator Paine met them and responded with the message that Lyndon Johnson emphasized during his presidency: the space program could be a launchpad to a greater society. “Man on the Moon: Communist Reactions to the Voyage of Apollo 11,” July 25, 1969, Box 20, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; Muir-Harmony, Apollo to the Moon, 129–131.

  4. Thomas O’Toole, “Astronauts Poised for Historical Lunar Voyage,” Washington Post, July 16, 1969, A1; Collins, Carrying the Fire, 356; Ferguson, Project Apollo, 38–44.

  5. “Inside TV,” Los Angeles Times, September 9, 1969, E19; US Embassy London to USIA Washington, June 30, 1969, Box 21, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; US Embassy Panama to USIA Washington, July 15, 1969, Box 21, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; US Embassy Saigon to USIA Washington, July 10, 1969, Box
21, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek, Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014), 78–90.

  6. Report to the Congress from the President of the United States, US Aeronautics and Space Activities for 1969.

  7. Leonard Miall, “Obituary: Ruggero Orlando,” Independent, May 6, 1994; Jean R. Hailey, “Louis Deroche, French Newsman, Dies,” Washington Post, July 24, 1975, B10.

  8. CBS, Man on the Moon, July 16, 1969.

  9. Mailer, Of a Fire on the Moon, 98; Ferguson, Project Apollo, 37.

  10. Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission Press Kit, Release No. 69–83K, July 6, 1969, NASA.

  11. Lyndon Johnson, quoted in CBS, Man on the Moon, July 16, 1969.

  12. “VOA Coverage on the Flight of Apollo XI, 1969,” September 11, 1969.

  13. Frank Shakespeare to Representative Edward J. Derwinski, August 4, 1969, Box 8, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  14. Apollo Operation Center to Loomis, August 6, 1969; Apollo 11 Operations Office to Shakespeare, July 3, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA; Apollo 11 Operations Office to Shakespeare, July 23, 1969.

  15. Apollo 11 Operations Office to Shakespeare, July 3, 1969; CBS Television Network, 10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/1969; Meerman Scott and Jurek, Marketing the Moon, 80.

  16. CBS Television Network, 10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/1969, 61–62.

  17. CBS Television Network, 63.

  18. Collins, Carrying the Fire, 393; Armstrong, quoted in “Apollo 11, Day 4, part 1: Approaching the Moon,” Apollo Flight Journal, corrected transcript and commentary by W. David Woods, Kenneth D. MacTaggart, and Frank O’Brien, 2019, https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap11fj/12day4-loi1.html.

  19. “Apollo 11, Day 4, part 1: Approaching the Moon.”

  20. “The First Lunar Landing,” Lunar Surface Journal, corrected transcript and commentary by Eric M. Jones, Apollo 11, 2018, https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.landing.html; Chaikin, A Man on the Moon, 189–200.

  21. “Brazil Cheers Lunar Landing,” Sun, July 21, 1969, A4; “Japanese Apollo 11 Ovation Drowns Out Friction Issues,” Christian Science Monitor, July 22, 1969, 4. The dance step created for the event resembled the “Lindy Hop,” which had become popular after Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 transatlantic flight. American Consulate Nice to the State Department, July 31, 1969, Box 3014, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA.