Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership

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.

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.