The USA Then and Now
AL WORDEN → The decade of the sixties was not good, but we were very goal oriented. We did have a fire in 1967 in the Cape and there was a lot of talk about should we continue the program or not. But the decision was made, and I think the right one, that we continue, because these things are going to happen. I don’t care what kind of a test program you have, there are going to be accidents. There are going to be people that get hurt, and you can’t stop because of that. I was part of the group that worked with the contractor. And I know there was not one ounce of bureaucracy involved in any of that. Everybody sat around the table and solved the problem - and came to a consensus, and everybody had the idea that hey, I’m working here to put the guy on the moon. But I think that’s changed. I think we’re settling back into something that’s not as positive as it used to be. I think we’re getting too, what do I want to say? We’re getting too divided. I see us getting terribly divided, and it’s very upsetting to me. And because we’re getting divided, we’re not getting anything done. Because one side’s not going to give into the other, so I think that’s a big difference. We didn’t have that problem back in the sixties and seventies.
CHARLIE DUKE → The war, no question, was ripping us apart in 1972, but the space program was pulling us together. I saw the Apollo with hundreds of thousands of people involved in the program and excited that we’re in a race, we’re still in a Cold War, but we’re in the hot war in Vietnam, but we’re going to win this Cold War. And so as I went around the country speaking back in those days, I found a lot of togetherness, if you will, and the kids, the adults, everybody was excited about it: “We’re going to do something that’s never been done before.” So, it did pull the country together. In some respects, I think we’re less positive now. In some respects, I think we’re more positive. The goal of being in space is still a very positive thing in our country. There are a lot of movements, I think, that are not so good, that I think we’ve gone off the deep end.
MICHAEL COLLINS → I think the space program, important as it was, was not the monumental change or the monumental challenge to our social systems. It was a relatively minor part of it. The country goes on. The United States, best country in the world—continues to be, was before, is now, and will be in the future. It was not (impacted)
one way or the other, favorably or unfavorably by the space program. I don’t think everything was so terrible and we metamorphosed it so wonderfully. The space program was a relatively small part of what was going on. And the country was not in total disarray.
RUSSELL SCHWEICKART → Apollo 9 occurred when the Vietnam war was going on, Robert Kennedy had just been assassinated, Martin Luther King had just been assassinated, there were riots, there was all kinds of stuff going on of a historic nature. In fact, we were completely focused on the Apollo program and getting the program off the ground. I’m very much involved in the here and now, and at the same time what are my deepest and most significant concerns and where I put my energy is in the long term. So, I have much more interest in where we’re going in the long term. We live in difficult times and there will always be difficult times; this is, in a sense, the froth on the surface of the history of the ocean, or in the ocean of history, I should put it that way. And that froth, has very little to do with what’s going on in the deep ocean. Our role, and responsibility is the continued evolution of this life experiment. That to me, is what’s important and that to me is what’s important ultimately about Apollo and the 50th anniversary celebration. Apollo 9 was simply one of several steps along the way. What’s important is having looked back at the Earth and understood that we live in this corner of the universe and that we have a responsibility. My hope is that in the middle of all the hubbub of national politics and bickering that there is a deeper understanding (or space exploration) by our national leaders. It’s a responsibility in a sense that we have to generations, countless generations, in the future.