How Did John F. Kennedy's Reaction To The Space Race?

In two American Institute of Public Opinion (AIPO) polls of 1959, there was an indication that 31 percent of the respondents trusted the Republican Party in handling international issues such as foreign policy and peacekeeping, 28 voted for the Democratic Party and 29 saw no distinction between the two. Of the few respondents who acknowledged “National defense preparedness” and “Space, Sputnik, and missiles” as the most important problems, most supported the Democrats on both issues, with ratios of 35 to 8 percent Republican and 50 to 21 percent respectively (Logsdon, 393). Even before the candidates were introduced, the Democratic party was at a high ground. Consequently, John F. Kennedy became the youngest elected President in American history,
Americans began to question their way of life and fear communism even more. Most notably, people grew concerned over the quality and efficiency of education in the US, as it seemed as if the Soviet Union had the ability to nurture countless successful scientists who assisted her effort in the Space Race.

LIFE Magazine published an issue titled, “Crisis in Education” in March 1958, featuring photographs and an article addressing the flaws in the American educational system and comparing the daily lives of Stephen Lapekas and Alexei Kutztov, both 17 years old, and from the US and USSR, respectively. Alexei, the Soviet boy, had a densely packed schedule and excelled in all his classes, and only in his free time would he play some chess. He also regularly practiced the piano and played volleyball – from various standpoints, this boy was perfect, gifted, and well-rounded. In sharp contrast, Stephen, the average American teenager, was two years academically behind Alexei, even in English, and struggled through basic geometry problems. What’s worthy of note is that they both won prizes of the same degree in science fairs, but Alexei’s project was far more advanced than that of Stephen, signifying the problem that American standards were too low academically. In the
Space was a popular theme on television shows of this era. In these years, numerous shows such as Lost in Space and Star Trek made their premiers. In 1968, Stanley Kubrick filmed 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on the book by Arthur C. Clarke.

After the American success in the Gemini program, Chris Kraft, a NASA official, claimed, “America could now officially claim to be ahead of the Russians in the race to the Moon,” (Kuhn, 59). At this point, most Americans felt optimistic about the space program, as the Soviet Union had not launched a man into space since 1965.

In the two years after Apollo 8, Congress passed environmental-friendly laws such as the Clean Air Act, founded Environmental Protection Agency, and implemented the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) April 1970. The US started to celebrate Earth Day annually (Kuhn, 70). Finally, prior to the moon landings, around half of the US population had doubts about the mission. Nevertheless, on July 16, 1969, one million people gathered to see astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin get launched towards the moon. With the successful lunar landings, the Americans won over the Russians in the Space Race (Kuhn,