Taylor Struwe Centennial Oral History Project Annotated Podcast Script October 25, 2013 Host: Taylor Struwe,

HIST 386/586 (TS) Narrators: David Blakeley, Class of 1971 (DB) Gordon A. Meyer, Class of 1966 (GM) TS: Prior to Sputnik I, the United States enjoyed a time of national pride and economic growth buoyed by its resolve, courage, and confidence in its scientists, engineers, and technicians but Sputnik changed that.1 Relaying meaningless beeps back to Earth 175 miles away, the impact of Sputnik on the United States and the world was enormous and unprecedented. The silver beach ball weighing a mere 184 pounds created a perception of American weakness, complacency, and a missile gap, which led to bitter accusations, resignations of key military figures, and contributed to the election of John F. Kennedy, who emphasized the space gap and the role of the Eisenhower-Nixon administration in creating it. 2 Former President Eisenhower repeatedly made scathing statements about the space program and its budget. Eisenhower derided the manned lunar landing project as nuts. As president, Kennedy who decided to put a man on the moon did so with the belief that voters who had been kids at the time of Sputnik in 1957 were more willing than their parents to pay the high price of going into space. A manned lunar landing became the principal United States space objective, as well as a national goal, when President Kennedy asked Congress on May 21, 1961, to accomplish a manned lunar landing within the decade of the 1960s.3 Americas rush into space is in some ways the most remarkable event in our history. It was a huge process that cannot be understood from only one viewpoint. We will hear from David Blakely and Gordon Meyer, two UW-Eau Claire alums about their viewpoints of Americas space race with the Soviets. DB: The Space Race was very interesting, it birthed all the technology that we rely on today without thinking, certainly electronic technology. You have more computer power in your cell phone than they took to the moon. Though dramatized by the film, the return of Apollo 13 in my estimation was the

"Sputnik Beeping." Audio blog post. Youtube.com, 01 Mar. 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Dickson, Paul. Sputnik: The Shock of the Century. New York: Walker Pub., 2001. 1-7. Print. 3 Joseph G. Whelan, Leonard N. Beck, Leon M. Herman, Domas Krivickas, and Armins Rusis, Soviet Space Programs, 1962-1965: Goals and Purposes, Achievements, Plans, and International Implications, Staff Report prepared for the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, December 30, 1966, pp. 4-11.
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greatest technological feat that anybody has ever achieved and the film handles it very, very well a look beneath, those were real people doing that, real people.4 TS: The effect on the technological and scientific community from Sputnik was monumental. It led to the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency to ensure the United States would never again be left behind in the area of new technology and the beginning of flush times for the National Science Foundation. The emphasis in school changed from teaching facts to fundamental principles, the process of inquiry, independent thought, and the challenging of long-held assumptions5. Attitudes toward intellectuals changed virtually overnight and students were encouraged to look at alternative theories and venture closer to the edge of conventional thinking. Then when you began to see the total commitment of the people and these are people I went to college with who wound up in that program, you know. Mathematicians, physicists, scientists, guys you know, I mean they were all you know, see that there was a real concentrated effort to make this thing happen.6 TS: The differences between the Soviet and American space programs rested on technology. Although the Soviet Union was the first to go into space, it relied on simple technology and the ability to launch scores of rockets each year. Meanwhile, Americas Apollo program relied on only a few launches but involved more complex technologies. In 1960, NASA announced a new manned spaceflight program called Apollo. But this new resolve and more powerful technology did not come without fatal consequences. I thought Apollo caught on fire and killed, Grissom, White and Chaffee in that test run, that might set her back beyond the date Kennedy had mentioned. But, again the old American ingenuity and all that concentration of efforts and everything else, and Borman went around the moon at Christmas time. I said you know, I think they are gonna make it. I think they are gonna pull this baby off.7

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GM:

Interview of David Blakeley by David Withers, October 11, 2012. Centennial Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. 00:59:25-01:00:07 5 Dickson, Paul. Sputnik: The Shock of the Century. New York: Walker Pub., 2001. 228. Print. 6 Interview of Gordon Meyer by Scott Marshaus, October 9, 2012. Centennial Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 00:40:54-00:41:15 7 Interview of Gordon Meyer by Scott Marshaus, October 9, 2012. Centennial Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 00:41:17-00:41:49
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The crew of Apollo 1, preparing for what was to have been the first manned launch of the Apollo program, died in a matter of seconds on January 27, 1967. America was shocked by the tragic accident; it set the Moon mission back roughly eighteen months. The first manned Apollo flight did not occur until October 11, 1968 but then came the bold decision that Apollo 8 would orbit the Moon. On Christmas Eve the world was stunned to hear American astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders have successfully orbited the lunar surface.8 We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. 9

GM:

I really thought that Kennedy was blowing a little smoke when he made that, we were gonna go to the moon. That sounds good politically you know you got yourself in one right now between you know, Obama and Romney, and you know, you just don't know, and you think wow.10 The Kennedy and Johnson Administration won by running against the drift, delay, and dilution of the Eisenhower-Nixon administration in dealing with the space challenge. Only rivaled by the construction of the Panama Canal and the Manhattan Project, Americas largest, costliest and most ambitious technological endeavor was under way. I remember when Armstrong walked on the moon, just like it was yesterday, we gathered for the event. I think even then we knew it wouldnt go on because it cost so much, but at the same time, looking back, it was a profitable endeavor, we have enjoyed the wealth that our country achieved in the 90s and in the first decade of the twenty-first century as the fruits of that Space Race. And the Space Race, of course was the fruit of the Cold War, so good things have come out of it. 11

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Dickson, Paul. Sputnik: The Shock of the Century. New York: Walker Pub., 2001. 220-21. Print. Kennedy, John F. "President John F. Kennedy Space Speech 1962." Audio blog post. Youtube.com. Dan Izzo, 17 July 2007. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. 10 Interview of Gordon Meyer by Scott Marshaus, October 9, 2012. Centennial Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 00:40:29-00:40:53 11Interview of David Blakeley by David Withers, October 11, 2012. Centennial Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. 01:00:07-1:00:52
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On July, 21, 1969 after a six-hour sleep, just about four minutes before 11:00pm, Armstrong became the first human to step foot and walk on the Moon. 12 He stepped out of an ugly and uncomfortable vehicle onto the surface of another world. A long-standing dream of mankind, as well as an American goal, was realized with the successful mission of Apollo 11. The day after the epic manned lunar landing seemed an especially appropriate time for public soulsearching.13 The extensive TV coverage of the event made it one of those where were you moments that sticks with an entire generation of people. In July of 1969, I was in Taylor Falls Minnesota watching T.V. with my then Wife's uncle at his farm outside Taylor Falls Minnesota. And it was black and white T.V. and we were watching and Neil Armstrong stepped off and I mean, you know. Another one of those moments, but different than the Kennedy. Just total jubilation you know, man, you know now we gotta get back. Hope that thing lights, you know. I think the guy that was doing the announcing that night said that the lunar lander engine had been fired successfully one thousand times in a row. And I said I wonder if that guy know ever knew about one thousand and one, you know. But you know, we're sitting here and all of a sudden, Jim my wife's uncle and he was sitting there watching. And he looked outside, and there was a dog outside, and he wanted to know who's dog that was. No collar, no tags, just a stray dog running around so he fed it some water and something to eat, the dog stayed. Next time we were up there, dogs there. And I said Jim you kept the dog, and he said yeah we named it Apollo. True story, I said, your kidding me. No he said, he showed up on the day we landed on the moon, and I said well I can't think of a better name for him and so that was, that was what they did. And I mean that whole 60s era, I mean it just, it was interesting.14

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TS: Experts were bitterly divided over the best way to landing on the Moon when Kennedy committed the United States to this goal. For the Moon had been the limit of most peoples imagination; that we might soon walk on its alien surface, then, almost in a moment, dream became reality. There will always be good reasons for scientific expeditions to other worlds for the mysteries of the universe are limitless.

Dickson, Paul. Sputnik: The Shock of the Century. New York: Walker Pub., 2001. 222. Print. Holman, Mary A. The Political Economy of the Space Program. Palo Alto, CA: Pacific, 1974. 6. Print. 14 Interview of Gordon Meyer by Scott Marshaus, October 9, 2012. Centennial Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 00:41:53-00:43:53
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Brief Topic Description The interviews I used were the only two among the many touching on the Space Race during the height of the Cold War. The race for space domination was a symbolic fight between democratic society and totalitarian communism by means of technology. Hearing the two reactions from David Blakely and Gordon Meyer who attended the UW-Eau Claire from the late 1960s to the early 1970s gives the listeners a perspective of how it felt to be young during these historic times. The responses range from disbelief to acceptance to recognizing the significant technological achievements of landing on the moon. I have included a brief audio clip of Sputniks beeps in 1957 and Kennedys speech about a manned lunar landing in 1962 at Rice University to give the listeners some added perspective and interest in the podcast.