Apollo 11, Richard Nixon, and John F. Kennedy

There was little inclination on Richard Nixon’s part to acknowledge President John Kennedy’s role in initiating the lunar landing program as the launch of Apollo 11 approached. Indeed, throughout the many celebrations of the Apollo 11 achievement, Nixon never once publicly spoke Kennedy’s name.

This visceral aversion to sharing credit for Apollo became evident as Nixon’s Special Assistant for Urban Affairs Daniel P. Moynihan, who was among the more liberal of Nixon’s White House staff and who had earlier served as an assistant to President Kennedy, received a request from another Kennedy alumnus, Bill Moyers. Moyers, in 1969 the publisher of the Long Island, New York, newspaper Newsday, on June 4 forwarded a column he had written suggesting that the Apollo 11 spacecraft be commissioned “The John F. Kennedy” in recognition of the late president’s role in initiating Project Apollo. Moyers told Moynihan “you knew John Kennedy even bet­ter than I did; can’t you influence your friends there to take up this sugges­tion?” Moynihan forwarded the suggestion to Haldeman, saying that “the Newsday proposal has a certain gallant quality to it. I imagine this would be interesting to the President, and I strongly suspect it would be to his advan­tage.” Haldeman had the proposal circulated among other senior staff mem­bers. Counselor Arthur Burns, at that point Nixon’s top advisor on domestic policy, “heartily” endorsed the idea, saying that “such an act of gracious­ness is justified by history and would be, I think, good politics besides.”

Presidential science advisor Lee DuBridge thought that the proposal would be “a fitting tribute indeed to the man who, against great opposition, initi­ated this bold project.” In contrast, White House communications direc­tor Herb Klein “strongly” recommended against the proposal, saying “the Kennedy angle will get major play anyway. We would get more mileage with a gracious Presidential mention of Kennedy’s vision.” Congressional rela­tions assistant Bryce Harlow noted that it was President Eisenhower who ini­tiated the U. S. space program and remarked that “we have gone far enough in ‘Kennedyizing’ the mission.” Senior advisor John Ehrlichman pragmati­cally noted that “such an action would win us neither friends in Congress nor votes in 1972,” suggesting “fall prey to this and the next step will be renaming the moon because NBC thinks it would be a good idea.” After receiving these diverse views, Haldeman directed that “any plan to commis­sion the Apollo 11 shot John F. Kennedy be abandoned”; in initialing the memorandum recording this decision, he added in bold handwriting with double underlining, “positively!!”18

There is no evidence in the written record that President Nixon knew of this episode, although it is hard to imagine that Haldeman in his frequent and extended meetings with Nixon did not raise the matter. At any rate, Haldeman’s decision meant that there was no obstacle to the Apollo 11 crew themselves choosing the names for their spacecraft, as had become the tradi­tion. The crew announced at their last prelaunch press conference on July 5 that their command and service module would be christened Columbia and their lunar lander, Eagle.