Overture

Abstract

On July 20, 1969, U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong took “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” as he became the first human to set foot on the Moon. The success of the Apollo 11 mission satisfied the goal that had been set by President John F. Kennedy jus over eight years earlier—“before this decade is out, landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”1 Inevitably, it also raised the question “What do you do next, after landing on the Moon?” It fell to President Richard M. Nixon, sworn into office exactly six months before Armstrong’s historic moonwalk, to answer this question. The following account traces in detail how Nixon and his associates in the 1969–1972 period went about developing their response. The decisions made then have defined the U.S.