American Moonshot

by Douglas Brinkley

  First and foremost, American Moonshot is a work of U.S. presidential history (not space studies). In this tradition, I benefited mightily from the fine works of Kennedy scholars such as Robert Dallek, Chris Matthews, Steven Levingston, David Nasaw, Robert Caro, Richard Reeves, Fredrick Kempe, Andrew Cohen, Sally Bedell Smith, Martin W. Sandler, Jeff Shesol, Barbara A. Perry, Philip Nash, David Greenberg, Fredrik Logevall, Thurston Clarke, Nigel Hamilton, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

  Anybody reading my notes can easily ascertain which books, memoirs, documents, oral histories, and articles I found most useful. Nevertheless, I’d like to give a double thumbs-up to the following space history classics: William E. Burrows, The New Ocean (1998); Piers Bizony, The Man Who Ran the Moon: James E. Webb, NASA, and the Secret History of Project Apollo (2006); Andrew Chaikin, A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of Apollo Astronauts (1994); Paul Dickson, Sputnik (2001); Francis French and Colin Burgess, Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers in the Space Era, 1961–1965 (2017); Monique Laney, German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie: Making Sense of the Nazi Past During the Civil Rights Era (2015); Walter A. McDougall, . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (1985); Yanek Mieczkowski, Eisenhower’s Sputnik Moment (2013); Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox, Apollo (2004); Asif Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974 (2000); William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (2003); Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang, Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military (2018); and John Noble Wilford, We Reach the Moon (1969). All these books are fixtures in my Austin home library.

  A number of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts wrote autobiographies. The most useful were John Glenn with Nick Taylor, John Glenn: A Memoir (1999); Buzz Aldrin, Magnificent Desolation: The Long Trip Home from the Moon (2009); Scott Carpenter with Kris Stoever, For Spacious Skies (2003); and Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon (1994). The best biography ever written of a NASA astronaut is James R. Hansen’s First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (2005). I’m indebted to Professor Hansen for proofreading an early draft of this book.

  It is my personal opinion, based on all that I’ve read, that Wernher von Braun was culpable for war crimes associated with the German Third Reich, using slave labor to build his V-2s during World War II. Too many studies of von Braun try to sugarcoat his questionable Nazi past. While von Braun should be studied and honored within the guided corridors of engineering and space exploration, he should not be treated as a sustainable twentieth-century American hero. I’m grateful that von Braun scholars Dr. Michael J. Neufeld of the National Air and Space Museum and Monique Laney of Auburn University have helped expose the dark side of this enigmatic personality in their first-rate books.

  Diane McWhorter, the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, proofread the manuscript with laserlike eyes. She is a marvelous person and a walking encyclopedia of Alabama history.

  I’m lucky to have Harper as my publisher for nearly a quarter century. President and publisher Jonathan Burnham is one of the most erudite and thoughtful friends I have. There is nobody better to discuss the book world with (and he takes my weekend calls). Doug Jones (publisher), Kate D’Esmond (publicity), Trent Duffy (editorial services), and Katie O’Callaghan (marketing) all deserve thanks. Associate editor Sarah Haugen did an incredible job of preparing this book for publication. Similarly, Matt Hannafin helped me retool and trim the manuscript down to a more reader-friendly size. The photo guru was Lawrence Schiller, who discovered the amazing Kennedy era images within. And then there is Jonathan Jao, my primary editor, counselor, and guide, who never lets me down. His new son, Julian, was born while we were closing this book. May he inherit his father’s calmness, wisdom, and work ethic.

  Dr. Mark Davidson—my former personal assistant, now chief archivist for Bob Dylan—is an Internet genius. He helped me locate a number of hard-to-find space-related documents and helped me solve primary source problems. My friend Julie Fenster, a marvelous historian, helped me in myriad ways. The book benefited mightily from her amazing sense of Cold War history, editorial instincts, and savvy advice. Sloan Harris, my International Creative Management (ICM) agent, was a huge help on numerous fronts.

  My mother died during the writing of this book at age eighty-four (heart attack). During my childhood, she had me watch every Apollo mission on television and took me on a study trip to Cape Canaveral. My ninety-year-old father, Edward Brinkley, has gone on living without her. A great student of American history, he was a marvelous sounding board for this project. I love him dearly.

  My personal assistant for the past two years is Erika Bell, a mother of three children in Austin. She grew up in Hubbard, Iowa (population 800), and earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Northern Iowa. She is meticulous, conscientious, and hilarious, and is a warm soul. The Brinkley family adores her. Her husband, Garrick Bell, a longtime law-enforcement officer, is a blessed man.

  And, finally, words cannot fully convey my gratitude to my wife, Anne Brinkley, and our three school-age children, Benton, Johnny, and Cassady. Together we visited Florida’s Space Coast (Florida), Armstrong Air and Space Museum (Ohio), Johnson Space Center (Texas), the National Air and Space Museum (Washington, DC), and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (Massachusetts), and many other space-related sites. They also enjoyed the John F. Kennedy Birthplace in Brookline, Massachusetts, run by the National Park Service. Together, we made the American journey to understanding the politics of space exciting and fun.

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