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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2018
On the cratered surface of the moon, a small stainless steel plaque commemorates the remarkable visit made by “men from the planet earth” who “came in peace for all mankind” in the summer of 1969. It bears the name of the three men who made the journey, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins. And it features the name of one man who did not: President Richard M. Nixon.
1 Article from the Washington Star reprinted in Safire, William, Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House (New York, 1975), 145Google Scholar.
2 “Nixoning the Moon,” New York Times, July 19, 1969, 24.
3 Launius, Roger D. and McCurdy, Howard E., eds., Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership (Chapel Hill, NC, 1997)Google Scholar.
4 Walter Rugaber, “Nixon Makes ‘Most Historic Telephone Call Ever,’” New York Times, July 21, 1969, 2.
5 Jack Gould, “TV: An Awesome Event,” New York Times, July 21, 1969, 67.
6 “Nixoning the Moon,” New York Times, July 19, 1969, 24.
7 Gertrude Mertens, Letter to the Editor, “Nixon's Horning In,” New York Times, July 25, 1969, 46.
8 Haldeman, H. R., The Haldeman Diaries (New York, 1994), 74Google Scholar.
9 Safire, Before the Fall, 149.
10 Ibid, 150.
11 Greenberg, David, Nixon's Shadow: A History of an Image (New York, 2004)Google Scholar.
12 Brownell, Kathryn Cramer, Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life (Chapel Hill, NC, 2014), 195–207Google Scholar.
13 Haldeman, Haldeman Diaries, 71.
14 Fred Ferretti, “Nixon May Speak to Men on Moon,” New York Times, July 18, 1969, 1; Dinner menu for Century Plaza, August 13, 1969, Folder 4, Box 79, Neil A. Armstrong Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN; Sherman, Gabriel, The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News—and Divided a Country (New York, 2014), 63Google Scholar.
15 Safire, Before the Fall, 147.
16 Contracts and rules over media appearances and public statements restricted what astronauts could say in public and even went so far as to regulate autographs that they could give to fans. See policy documents in Folder 2, Box 146, Neil A. Armstrong Papers.
17 Neil Armstrong received thousands of letters from across the world and spent two years traveling to all fifty states as well as the Soviet Union. The Armstrong papers at Purdue University have extensive documentation of the fanfare.
18 Letters exchanged between Goldberg, Huntley, Nixon, and Armstrong, July 1970, Folder 3, Box 309, Neil A. Armstrong Papers.
19 Memo from Gordon Strachan, June 12, 1972, Folder 7, Box 14, Contested Materials Collection, Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library (RMNL), Yorba Linda, CA.
20 Haldeman, Haldeman Diaries, 73.
21 On the pursuit of loyalty and power, see Michael Koncewicz, “They Said ‘No’ to Nixon: Republicans Who Stood Up to the President's Abuse of Power,” manuscript under contract with University of California Press. On CREEP as a PR operation, see Brownell, Showbiz Politics, 207–218.
22 Memo from Gordon Strachan, June 12, 1972, Folder 7, Box 14, RMNL.
23 John Noble Wilford, “Many Astronauts Now Pursue Down-to-Earth Careers in Business and Politics,” New York Times, December 29, 1969, 33; Canon, David, Actors, Athletes, and Astronauts: Political Amateurs in the United States Congress (Chicago, 1990)Google Scholar.