Apollo 11 Research Paper

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Pages: 7

Sean Lee 4/5/24 Mr. McCallistor AP Lang “IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER” In 1969, America’s space program, NASA, launched the Apollo 11 mission in hopes of setting foot on the Moon for the first time in human history. All eyes were on NASA and America at this moment, with people from all over the world looking on in excitement and anxiety (“Apollo 11 and the World”). The stakes were high as ever: the Apollo 11 mission was in the midst of the Cold War, and America needed to demonstrate their astronautical superiority. Despite calculating and accounting for every three-dimensional change in velocity, gravitational change, and possible errors, the mission was still one with a scary probability of failure (Urrutia). Bill Safire, knowing that there was …show more content…
The credibility and significance of the president delivering such a speech is undeniable, but simultaneously, Nixon has been under scrutiny since his days as a senator. More importantly, the Apollo 11 mission took place around the time that he was under heavy pressure from the American public due to the American bombings and invasion of Cambodia, a neutral nation during the Vietnam War (Rotondi, Jessica Pearce). Nixon was arguably one of the most hated presidents in American history, but Safire nevertheless created the speech to be delivered by Nixon and not any other high ranking government official. Safire’s decision to have the speech delivered by Nixon despite his controversy shows that the president’s inherent ability to sway the American people overpowers the possible controversies of a president in a situation where the public must be comforted and the international community addressed. But despite his controversial nature, it was absolutely vital to Safire that the speech be delivered by Nixon, his intended speaker, because of the president’s inherent significance in