Project Apollo, Cold War Diplomacy and the American Framing of Global Interdependence by MASSACHUSETTS 5NS E. OF TECHNOLOGY OCT 0 6 201 Teasel Muir-Harmony LIBRARIES Bachelor of Arts St. John's College, 2004 Master of Arts University of Notre Dame, 2009 Submitted to the Program in Science, Technology, and Society In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology September 2014 D 2014 Teasel Muir-Harmony. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature redacted Signature of Author: History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology affd Society August 19, 2014 Certified by: Signature redacted David A. Mindell Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Committee Chair redacted Certified by: Signature David Kaiser C01?shausen Professor of the History of Science Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Society Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics Committee Member Signature redacted Certified by: Rosalind Williams Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Technology Committee Member Accepted by: Signature redacted Heather Paxson William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor, Anthropology Director of Graduate Studies, History, Anthropology, and STS Signature redacted Accepted by: David Kaiser Germeshausen 14Dfssor of the History of Science, STS Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Society Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics Project Apollo, Cold War Diplomacy and the American Framing of Global Interdependence by Teasel Muir-Harmony Submitted to the Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society on August 19, 2014 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the distinctive and critical role that space exploration played in American foreign relations and national image making in the 1960s. Proposed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, Project Apollo was established, in large part, as a means of demonstrating American power and promoting technocratic values in an international landscape defined by the Cold War, the collapse of colonialism, and the emergence of newly independent nations. While existing scholarship has gestured to this geopolitical context, it has tended to examine activity that takes place on American or lunar soil. This dissertation argues that the geopolitical context was not simply a backdrop but instead the main theater of Project Apollo. By embedding this familiar story back in its global context, this dissertation reinterprets the established narrative of Project Apollo in three significant ways. First, it places greater emphasis on the international stage and the relationship between the US and the world. Second, while the role of the Executive Branch remains essential to this story, this dissertation shifts the focus from engineers and managers, to key actors within the State Department and United States Information Agency, as well as foreign leaders and the world public. Finally, the role of Project Apollo in foreign relations, and public diplomacy in particular, becomes the defining feature of this investigation. By examining how US government elites promoted and disseminated information about space exploration to support American foreign relations interests, this dissertation offers a lens onto attempts to establish national power by fusing perceived values and strengths of science and technology- like rationality and progress- with the image of the nation's political system. These efforts, this dissertation demonstrates, were not only aimed at boosting American prestige, but were also strategic attempts to promote an idea of global unity and progress ushered in by American scientific and technological leadership. Thesis Supervisor: David Mindell Title: Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics 3 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am fortunate enough to be indebted to countless friends, colleagues and acquaintances that supported, challenged and guided me at every stage of this process. First, I want thank the participants in Project Apollo public diplomacy who shared their time and recollections with me: Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Simon Bourgin, Ken Bryson, Conan Grames, Beverly Gray, Fred Haise, James Lovell Jr., Jack Masey & Beverly Payeff-Masey, Harrison Schmitt, and David Scott. The conversations we had gave me an invaluable window onto a world I eagerly wanted to understand. I am grateful for my encouraging and optimistic committee. My advisor, David Mindell, supported this project, and me, throughout my time at MIT. He has continually challenged me to look more closely, dig more deeply and ask more questions--for this I am profoundly appreciative. Rosalind Williams has been a generous and remarkable mentor; this project has benefited immeasurably from her insights about the impact of technology on human experience. I thank David Kaiser for his graciousness, perceptive comments and encouragement. Although Leo Marx was not on my committee his influence, I hope, can be detected in these pages. I feel privileged and grateful to have been one of Leo's students. I thankful to have worked with, and been mentored by, many other MIT faculty. I want to specifically express my gratitude to David Jones, Michael Fischer, Stefan Heimreich, Anne McCants, Heather Paxson, Hanna Rose Shell, Merritt Roe Smith, and Larry Young. I want to also thank Karen Gardner whose kindness, humor and support I relied on, and appreciated, every day. The HASTS student body and STS postdocs have been wonderful friends and colleagues. I would especially like to thank Marie Burks, Edoh Amah, Nate Deshmukh Towery, Xaq Frolich, Chihyung Jeon, Shreeharsh Kelkar, Yanni Loukissas, Ryan Shapiro, Shekhar Krishnan, Zara Mirmalek, Canay Ozden-Schilling, Rebecca Perry, Sophia Roosth, Michael Rossi, Caterina Scaramelli, Shira Shmuely, David Singerman, Alma Steingart, Mitali Thakor, Michaela Thompson, John Tylko, Emily Wanderer, and Rebecca Woods. I am particularly grateful for the friendship and support of Lisa Messeri, Tom Ozden- Schilling, Ellan Spero, and Ben Wilson. In 20111 was fortunate to be an exchange scholar in the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment at the Royal Institute of Technology. I thank my friends and colleagues at KTH and the University of Gothenburg for their hospitality, thoughtful questions and guidance during the early stages of this project. In particular I wish to recognize Anna Aberg, Dag Avango, Mats Fridlund, Sabine H6hler, Anders Houltz, Arne Kaijser, Christopher Kullenberg, Jesper Meijling, Adam Netz6n, Sverker S~rlin, and Helena T6rnkvist. I also wish to acknowledge Steven & Ingrid Gilsdorf, Susanne Grund, and Jenny Olsson, who made me feel at home in Stockholm. 5 I was fortunate to receive fellowships and scholarly homes at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) and the Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science (PACHS). Martin Collins has been a thoughtful and charitable mentor for the past ten years. I was grateful for the opportunity to work more closely with him at NASM as a Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Fellow. I wish to thank the many members of the Smithsonian community that have nurtured my project from its inception. I would especially like to thank Chandra Bhimull, Paul Ceruzzi, Pete Daniel, James David, Mychalene Giampaoli, Hunter Hollins, Maureen Kerr, Monique Laney, Roger Launius, Jennifer Levasseur, Cathleen Lewis, Jo Ann Morgan, Valerie Neal, Allan Needell, Michael Neufeld, Anke Ortlepp, Richard Paul, Jim Thomas, Steve Velasquez, Deborah Warner, Margaret Weitekamp, Collette Wiliams, and Beth Wilson. My year at PACHS gave me time to write and a community that challenged me to engage more deeply with the history of science and technology. I wish to thank the many friends and colleagues I gained in Philadelphia. In particular I would like to acknowledge Simon Joseph, Julia Mansfield, Rebecca Onion, Sheila O'Shaughnessy, and especially Babak Ashrafi. The seeds of this project were planted during my graduate studies at the University of Notre Dame and my various positions at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum. I am indebted to Don Howard, Marc Rodriguez, John Soares, and Tom Stapleford. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the Adler Webster Institute. I thank my remarkable colleagues Lauren Boegen, Jennifer Brand, Misty DeMars, Sara Gonzales, Jodi Lacy, Jill Postma, and Bruce Stephenson. Mary Bolt deserves special recognition for his continued support and inspiring passion for the history of astronomy. Much of the material in this dissertation had its first run in conference presentations and benefited immeasurably from the thoughtful insights from colleagues. In particular I wish to thank Laura Belmonte, Nicolas Cull, Brian Etheridge, Hallvard Notaker, Kendrick Oliver, Giles Scott-Smith, Asif Siddiqi, and David Snyder for their comments. Throughout this project I have relied on the guidance of many archivists; I am grateful for their time and expertise. I wish to thank the remarkably helpful archivists and librarians