The Kennedy Administration and Project Apollo: International Competition and Cooperation through Space Policy*

Abstract

The Kennedy administration decided on and carried out Project Apollo to defeat the Soviet Union in the moon race, while it also strived to realize U.S.-Soviet joint human lunar exploration in addition to their negotiations about space science cooperation. This article examines the change of the two aspects of Project Apollo, competition and cooperation with the Soviet Union, during one thousand days of the Kennedy administration from the perspective of U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War. The Kennedy administration chose Project Apollo as a crucial national policy that would bear part of the U.S. foreign policy, and advanced it by laying emphasis on competition or cooperation in accordance with the change of U.S.-Soviet relations. The purpose of Project Apollo was not only the display of U.S. power and ideas but also the relaxation of the tensions in the Cold War. The space policy of the Kennedy administration, with Project Apollo as the central program, restored gradually the U.S. international status of those days, and contributed to the opening of the peaceful coexistence in the 1960s with other foreign policies of the administration.