Operation Moonglow

by Teasel Muir-Harmony

  22. Apollo Operation Center to Loomis, August 6, 1969; Apollo 11 Operations Office to Shakespeare, July 23, 1969; CBS Television Network, 10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/1969, 94; “USIA 32nd Report to Congress.”

  23. CBS Television Network, 10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/1969, 63, 86–89.

  24. Memo for Frank Shakespeare, July 24, 1969, Box 4, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  25. USIA estimated that 650 million people watched the live television broadcast. “General Wrap-Up from USIA Apollo 11 Center,” July 22, 1969, Box 4, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA; Muir-Harmony, Apollo to the Moon, 137; “The First Lunar Landing,” https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.landing.html; Chaikin, A Man on the Moon, 207–209.

  26. It is possible that in the excitement and gravity of the moment, Armstrong did not fully enunciate the “a” in his statement. Some later acoustic analysis of the recording suggests that he did not drop the article, but the issue has caused controversy over the years. Either way, the meaning Armstrong intended is clear. For a discussion of the line, see Hansen, First Man, 494–496.

  27. Neil A. Armstrong, interviewed by Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley, Houston, TX, September 19, 2001, NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project.

  28. Meerman Scott and Jurek, Marketing the Moon, 69; Hansen, First Man, 519–520.

  29. In response to the 1967 Six-Day War, Egypt was attempting to force Israel out of the Sinai. On the night of the moon landing, however, the Israeli Air Force severely damaged the Egyptian forces. David A. Korn, Stalemate: The War of Attrition and Great Power Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1967–1970 (New York: Routledge, 1992), 165–188; William Borders, “Even in Hostile Nations, the Feat Inspires Awe: All the World’s in…,” New York Times, July 22, 1969, 1; “Chileans Dance, Soviets Scream ‘Hooray’ on Word of Landing,” Hartford Courant, July 21, 1969, 9A; “General Wrap-Up from USIA Apollo 11 Center”; Robert Donovan, “Moon Shot Helps U.S. Image on Nixon’s Tour,” Los Angeles Times, July 29, 1969, 17.

  30. Lella Scalia, “July 20th, 1969: Remembering When the Man Walked Where Nobody Had Gone Before,” Vogue Italia, July 20, 2010.

  31. Scalia, “July 20th, 1969.”

  32. The USIA reported that “school children in Bavaria and students in Mexico were excused from classes [the next] day… church bells rang out to announce the moon landing in various Latin American cities…. Laplanders followed the flight on their transistor radios while pasturing their reindeer.” “General Wrap-Up from USIA Apollo 11 Center”; US Embassy Mogadiscio to State Department, July 24, 1969, Box 3013, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA; “What’s in a Name? Plenty if It’s Neil,” Hartford Courant, July 22, 1969, 5.

  33. VOA broadcast live coverage of the flight in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, French, Greek, Japanese, Turkish, Chinese, and additional languages. The VOA coverage of John Glenn’s flight in 1962 broke records with an estimated world audience of 300 million people; in comparison, the Apollo 11 audience was more than twice that size. Report to the Congress from the President of the United States, US Aeronautics and Space Activities for 1969; Apollo Operation Center to Loomis, August 6, 1969; “VOA Coverage on the Flight of Apollo XI, 1969,” September 11, 1969; Patrick Buchanan to the White House, July 23, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  34. This was an important indicator to the USIA of the significance and impact of the agency’s Apollo 11 coverage and framing of the mission. Arthur Bardos to Henry Loomis, July 24, 1969, Box 4, Director’s Subject Files, 1968–1972, RG 306, NARA.

  35. Bardos to Loomis, July 24, 1969.

  36. Apollo 11 Operations Office to Shakespeare, July 23, 1969.

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

  38. “Foreign Media Reaction: Apollo 11,” July 21, 1969, Box 21, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; “USIA 32nd Report to Congress”; Bardos to Loomis, July 24, 1969.

  39. “USIA 32nd Report to Congress.”

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

  41. US Embassy Caracas to State Department, July 21, 1969, Box 3013, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA; US Embassy Santiago to State Department, July 18, 1969, Box 3013, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA.

  42. “Foreign Media Reaction: Apollo 11,” July 21, 1969.

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

  44. “Man on the Moon: Communist Reactions to the Voyage of Apollo 11,” July 25, 1969, Box 20, Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  45. Reinhardt to Ryan, July 25, 1969.

  46. Apollo 11 Operations Office to Shakespeare, July 23, 1969; Embassy Tokyo to Secretary of State, September 22, 1969, Box 3015, Folder “SP 10 US 9/1/69,” Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA.

  47. The USIS post in Tokyo reported that “one somewhat misguided youth thought his message would carry more meaning if written in blood.—it was!—it did!” Apollo 11 Operations Office to Frank Shakespeare, October 10, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA; “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 25, 1969.

  48. US Embassy Tokyo to Secretary of State, September 22, 1969.

  49. “Foreign Media Reaction: Apollo 11,” July 21, 1969; CBS Television Network, 10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/1969, 54, 91.

  50. Reinhardt to Ryan, July 25, 1969; American Embassy, Benghazi, to Department of State, August 1, 1969, Box 2014, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA.

  51. Asif A. Siddiqi, The Soviet Space Race with Apollo (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000), 693–697.

  52. “Man on the Moon: Communist Reactions,” July 25, 1969.

  53. Apollo Operations Center to Shakespeare, July 23, 1969.

  54. “Man on the Moon: Communist Reactions,” July 25, 1969; “USIA 32nd Report to Congress.”

  55. Henry Tasca to the Secretary of State, July 26, 1969, Box 3014, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA.

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

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

  58. USIS Rio de Janeiro to USIA Washington, August 6, 1969, Box 52, Entry A1 1016, RG 306, NARA.

  59. “Relationships Among Opinions About the United States and U.S. Foreign Policy,” April 1, 1973, Box 53, Entry A1 1016, RG 306, NARA.

  60. Apollo 11 Operations Office to Frank Shakespeare, August 29, 1969, Box 3, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA; “Moon Probe via TV Costly to S. Africans,” Chicago Tribune, July 14, 1969, 5.

  61. “Japanese Apollo 11 Ovation,” 4.

  62. Nan-Shih Ho, chairman of the United Poet Association of China, to Richard Nixon, July 27, 1969, Box 3015, Entry 1613, RG 59, NARA.

  63. USIS Tel Aviv to USIA Washington, July 24, 1969, Box 4, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  64. “Foreign Media Reaction: Apollo 11 Sunday Report,” July 20, 1969, Box 4, Entry A1 42, RG 306, NARA.

  65. Leonard A. Cheever, “The Spacecraft of Pablo Neruda and W. H. Auden,” in Flashes of the Fantastic: Selected Essays from the War of the Worlds Centennial, Nineteenth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, ed. David Ketterer (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 239–246.

  66. Francois Duvalier to Richard Nixon, July 26, 1969, Box 5, White House Central Files: Subject Files: Outer Space, RNPL; Jomo Kenyatta to Richard Nixon, July 22, 1969, Box 5, White House Central Files: Subject Files: Outer Space, RNPL; Josip Tito to Richard Nixon, July 22, 1969, Box 5, White House Central Files: Subject Files: Outer Space, RNPL; Hassan II to Richard Nixon, July 22, 1969, Box 5, White House Central Files: Subject Files: Outer Space, RNPL.

  67. The use of “for all mankind” reflects scholarship on contact language in trading zones. Understandings of what “for all mankind” means likely differed, but the phrase provided a means to coordinate and connect. See Peter Galison, Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997); Lisa Messeri, “The Problem with Pluto: Conflicting Cosmologies and the Classification of Planets,” Social Studies of Science 40, no. 2 (2010): 189–190.

  68. “Nixoning the Moon,” New
York Times, July 19, 1969, 24.

  69. Kathryn Cramer Brownell, “Nixoning the Moon,” Modern American History 1, no. 1 (2018): 139.

  70. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 73–74.

  CHAPTER 10: OPERATION MOONGLOW, AUGUST 1969

  1. “Apollo Operations Handbook Block II Spacecraft,” Washington, DC, NASA, 1969; Collins, Carrying the Fire, 441.

  2. Bob Fish, Hornet Plus Three: The Story of the Apollo 11 Recovery (Reno: Creative Minds, 2009), 113–119.

  3. Fish, Hornet Plus Three, 113–119.

  4. Nixon, Memoirs, 429; Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 75.

  5. Fish, Hornet Plus Three, 121.

  6. Nixon, Memoirs, 429.

  7. Richard Nixon, “Remarks to Apollo 11 Astronauts Aboard the U.S.S. Hornet Following Completion of Their Lunar Mission,” American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239653; Nixon, Memoirs, 429.

  8. “Nixon Cites Peace Aim in Manila,” Washington Post, July 26, 1969; Robert Donovan, “Moon Shot Helps U.S. Image on Nixon’s Tour,” Los Angeles Times, July 29, 1969, 17.

  9. Nixon, Memoirs, 394.

  10. “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 25, 1969.

  11. Robert Chalmers, “Apollo Gives U.S. a Big Boost in International Relations,” Washington Post, July 23, 1969, A23.

  12. Nixon, Memoirs, 393–394.

  13. Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 146–147; Jussi M. Hanhimaki, “An Elusive Grand Design,” in Nixon in the World: American Foreign Relations, 1969-1977, ed. Fredrik Logevall and Andrew Preston (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 35–37.

  14. Memorandum from the President’s Deputy Assistant (Butterfield) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), June 2, 1969, National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 672, Country Files, Europe, Czechoslovakia, vol. I, no classification marking, NARA.

  15. Kissinger, White House Years, 156.

  16. Kissinger, White House Years, 156.

  17. Kissinger, White House Years, 156.

  18. Helmut Sonnenfeldt memo for the record, June 23, 1969, “HAK Conversation with Romanian Ambassador Bogdan,” Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) collection: Kissinger Conversations: Supplement I, 1969–1977.

  19. Kissinger, White House Years, 156.

  20. Memorandum of telephone conversation, July 2, 1969, between Henry Kissinger and John Ehrlichman, DNSA collection: Kissinger Telephone Conversations, 1969–1977.

  21. Richard Nixon, “Information Remarks in Guam with Newsmen,” July 25, 1969, American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2140; Nixon, Memoirs, 394–395.

  22. Kissinger, White House Years, 223–224.

  23. “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 27, 1969, Box 21, Folder “INF 7-6 Apollo 11 Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA; “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 25, 1969.

  24. Al Haig to Henry Kissinger, July 17, 1969, Box 464, Folder “East Asian Trip 1969 Part 1,” National Security Council Files: Subject Files, RNPL.

  25. “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 25, 1969.

  26. Donovan, “Moon Shot Helps U.S. Image,” 17.

  27. “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 25, 1969; “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 27, 1969.

  28. Memorandum for the Director of Current Intelligence, “Nerve Gas Incident on Okinawa,” July 18, 1969, General CIA Records, CIA-RDP80B01439R000500090021-7, Central Intelligence Agency Digital Library.

  29. Jon Mitchell, “Red Hat’s Lethal Okinawa Smokescreen,” Japan Times, July 27, 2013; Robert Kently, “Nerve Gas Accident: Okinawa Mishap Bares Overseas Deployment of Chemical Weapons,” Wall Street Journal, July 18, 1969, 1; Jonathan B. Tucker, War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda (New York: Pantheon, 2006), 215; Charles Mohr, “Few Issues Expected to Arise in Nixon’s Brief Talks in Manila,” New York Times, July 26, 1969, 7.

  30. President’s Arrival Remarks for Manila, July 21, 1969, Box 464, Folder “Manila, Djakarta, Bangkok, India, Pakistan, and Romania—Departure notes, toasts, etc. 18 July 1969,” National Security Council Files: Subject Files, RNPL.

  31. President’s Suggested Toast for Manila, July 18, 1969, Box 464, Folder “Manila, Djakarta, Bangkok, India, Pakistan, and Romania—Departure notes, toasts, etc. 18 July 1969,” National Security Council Files: Subject Files, RNPL.

  32. President’s Departure Remarks for Manila, July 18, 1969, Box 464, Folder “Manila, Djakarta, Bangkok, India, Pakistan, and Romania—Departure notes, toasts, etc. 18 July 1969,” National Security Council Files: Subject Files, RNPL.

  33. Arrival Remarks for Djakarta, undated, Box 50, President’s Personal Files: President’s Speech File, RNPL; “Nixon Offers Help to Asians,” Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1969, 1; “Nixon Offers to Send Gift to Suharto: Piece of Moon,” Sun, July 28, 1969, A1.

  34. Donovan, “Moon Shot Helps U.S. Image,” 17.

  35. “Nixon Offers Help to Asians,” 1.

  36. Donovan, “Moon Shot Helps U.S. Image,” 17.

  37. “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 28, 1969, Box 21, Folder “INF 7-6 Apollo 11 Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  38. Kissinger, White House Years, 276–277; Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 76.

  39. “The Texts of the Statements by President Nixon and President Thieu,” New York Times, July 31, 1969, 16.

  40. Robert B. Semple Jr., “Nixon Sees Thieu, Talks to Troops in Vietnam Visit,” New York Times, July 31, 1969, 1.

  41. Special Memorandum, Foreign Radio and Press Reaction to President Nixon’s Trip to Asia and Romania, July 23-August 3, 1969, Box 464, Folder “Manila, Djakarta, Bangkok, India, Pakistan, and Romania—Departure notes, toasts, etc. 18 July 1969,” National Security Council Files: Subject Files, RNPL.

  42. “Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” July 24, 1969, Box 21, Folder “INF 7-6 Apollo 11 Worldwide Treatment of Current Issues,” Entry P 243, RG 306, NARA.

  43. Toast at Pakistan dinner, undated, Box 50, President’s Personal Files: President’s Speech File, RNPL.

  44. Kissinger, White House Years, 180–181.

  45. M. V. Kamath, “Nixon Home After ‘Quest for Peace,’” Times of India, August 5, 1969, 11; Nixon, Memoirs, 395; Karl E. Meyer, “Moon Shot Warmed Up Reception: Apollo 11 Sparked Rumanian Spirit,” Washington Post, August 3, 1969, 1.

  46. Meyer, “Moon Shot Warmed Up Reception,” 1; “Nixon’s Trip to Rumania Held Significant,” Times of India, July 27, 1969, 11.

  47. Meyer, “Moon Shot Warmed Up Reception,” 1; Robert B. Semple, “Nixon, in Rumania, Stresses Desire for World Peace,” New York Times, August 3, 1969, 1.

  48. Kissinger, White House Years, 157.

  49. President’s Toast for Bucharest, July 21, 1969, Box 464, Folder “Manila, Djakarta, Bangkok, India, Pakistan, and Romania—Departure notes, toasts, etc. 18 July 1969,” National Security Council Files: Subject Files, RNPL.

  50. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 77–78.

  51. Nixon, Memoirs, 395.

  52. Memorandum of conversation, private meeting between President Nixon and Ceauşescu, August 3, 1969, DNSA collection: Kissinger Transcripts, 1968–1977.

  53. Nguyen, “Waging War on All Fronts,” 189.

  54. Memorandum of conversation, private meeting between President Nixon and Ceauşescu, August 3, 1969.

  55. “Nixon’s Trip to Rumania,” 11.

  56. Special Memorandum, Foreign Radio and Press Reaction to President Nixon’s Trip to Asia and Romania, July 23-August 3, 1969.

  57. Henry Kissinger to Richard Nixon, undated, Box 464, Folder “East Asian Trip 1969, Part 1,” National Security Council Files: Subject Files, RNPL.

  58. Nixon, Memoirs, 396.

  59. Kissinger, White House Years, 278.

  60. “Talks in Apartment,” New York Times, October 12, 1972, 15; Kissinger, White House Years, 278.

  61. �
��Xuan Thuy, Hanoi Envoy at Paris Talks, Dies,” New York Times, June 20, 1985, 16.

  62. Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, August 6, 1969, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 863, For the President’s File, Vietnam Negotiations, Camp David Memcons, 1969–1970, NARA.

  63. Kissinger, White House Years, 281–282.

  64. “Nixon, Returning, Hails Friendship He Found on Trip,” New York Times, August 4, 1969, 1.

  65. A few days later, Kissinger presented Nixon with options for how the administration could handle Vietnam. Haldeman noted that the president recognized he had to be “prepared for the heat” and potential blowback to his decision. “This is at least part of the reason for the efforts to build strong nationalism with space thing.” Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 81. See also Steven V. Robert, “Nixon Is Host in Los Angeles at a State Dinner for 3 Men,” New York Times, August 14, 1969, 1; Don Oberdorfer, “Apollo Astronauts Hailed by Millions,” Washington Post, August 14, 1969, A1; Logsdon, After Apollo?, 26.

  CHAPTER 11: GIANTSTEP: THE APOLLO 11 DIPLOMATIC TOUR, 1969

  1. Peter Flanigan to Thomas Paine, August 15, 1969, Box 12, Folder “[EX] OS 3-1 8/1/69-9/30/69,” White House Central Files: Subject Files: Outer Space, RNPL.

  2. Douglas Martin, “Peter M. Flanigan, Banker and Nixon Aide, Dies at 90,” New York Times, August 1, 2013, A22.

  3. See correspondence in Box 12, Folder “[EX] OS 3-1 8/1/69-9/30/69.”

  4. Oral history interview with Paul Findley conducted by Mark DePue, February 8, 2013, Jacksonville, IL, Interview #IS-A-L-2013-002, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.

  5. Paul Findley to William Rogers, July 31, 1969, Box 17, Folder “Astronaut’s Tour 69,” Entry 243, RG 306, NARA.

  6. John E. Reinhardt to Mr. Ryan, July 29, 1969, Box 17, Folder “Astronaut’s Tour 69,” Entry 243, RG 306, NARA; Weil, “John E. Reinhardt.”