Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Setting the tone for the collection,
NASA chief historian Roger D. Launius and Howard McCurdy maintain that
the nation's presidency had become imperial by the mid-1970s and that
supporters of the space program had grown to find relief in such a presidency,
which they believed could help them obtain greater political support and
funding. Subsequent chapters explore the roles and political leadership,
vis- -vis government policy, of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy,
Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan.
Table of Contents
The reluctant racer, Dwight D. Eisenhower and United States space policy / David Callahan and Fred I. Greenstein -- Kennedy and the decision to go to the moon / Michael Beschloss -- Johnson, Project Apollo, and the politics of space program planning / Robert Dallek -- The presidency, Congress, and the deceleration of the U.S. space program in the 1970s / Joan Hoff -- Politics not science, the U.S. space program in the Reagan and Bush years / Lyn Ragsdale -- Presidential leadership and international aspects of the space program / Robert Ferrell -- National leadership and presidential power / John M. Logsdon.