Jay: There's evidence Kennedy wasn't interested in the scientific aspects, only the political aspects. I believe it.

As do I. This is actually something else I am currently looking at. The idea that this was all the vision of a non-engineer come politician -- which is more or less how numerous space historians have been romantically spinning it for the last thrifty years -- is a complete nonsense, IMHO. Kennedy would have been advised by the highest levels of defense and intelligence on which road they think he should take. And he played along, for a while. However, it seems to me as though Kennedy was actually facing his own personal battle as to which road he should actually take in the search for a lasting peace. By 1963 I think he is quite clear. I also believe that this road conflicted with the road advised by the intelligence and defense agencies.

"Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity--in the field of space--there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the Moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; by resolution of this Assembly, the members of the United Nations have foresworn any claim to territorial rights in outer space or on celestial bodies, and declared that international law and the United Nations Charter will apply. Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries--indeed of all the world--cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries."

The official position on the prospects of Soviet-American space cooperation was one of basic skepticism. James Webb was "committed by the Webb-McNamara memorandum to support a program of American technological pre-eminence in space. "Any program of cooperation would have to occur within a framework that would not jeopardise America's chances of establishing that position". The project that would deliver pre-eminence was Apollo, and in the mind of the surreptitious, Kennedy had clealry compromised it.

Jay: What Apollo was depends on who you are. You can say Kennedy's opinion is the "correct" answer because he was the President. But there were a lot more Ed Thompsons than there were JFKs. Who's to say their collective opinion isn't just as valid an interpretation?

In a perfect world. In a perfect world.

We Kopites have a saying: "No one player is bigger than the club". I honestly beleive the CIA have a similar motto.