Walter C. Williams Oral History Interview –JFK #1, 3/25/1964 Administrative Information Creator: Walter C. Williams Interviewer: Addison M. Rothrock, Jay Holmes, and Eugene M. Emme Date of Interview: March 25, 1964 Place of Interview: Washington, D.C. Length: 25 pp. Biographical Note Williams, Walter C.; Associate Director, Manned Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Williams discusses John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] interest and support for the space program, his visits with JFK regarding space missions, and the Mercury Program and Redstone missions, among other issues. Access Restrictions No restrictions. Usage Restrictions According to the deed of gift signed November 24, 1964, copyright of these materials has been assigned to the United States Government. Users of these materials are advised to determine the copyright status of any document from which they wish to publish. 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Transcript of Oral History Interview These electronic documents were created from transcripts available in the research room of the John F. Kennedy Library. The transcripts were scanned using optical character recognition and the resulting text files were proofread against the original transcripts. Some formatting changes were made. Page numbers are noted where they would have occurred at the bottoms of the pages of the original transcripts. If researchers have any concerns about accuracy, they are encouraged to visit the library and consult the transcripts and the interview recordings. Suggested Citation Walter C. Williams, recorded interview by Addison M. Rothrock, Jay Holmes, and Eugene M. Emme, March 25, 1964, (page number), John F. Kennedy Oral History Program. AGREEMENT ON USE OF ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT I, ~alter c. Williams, of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C., assign to cile United States of America for administration by the John F. Kennedy Library, Inc. , all my rights, title and interest in the tape recording and transcript of cile interview conducted with me at Washington, D. C., by Mr. Addison M. Rothrock, Mr. Jay Holmes and Dr. Eugene M. Emme on behalf of the John F. Kennedy Library, on March 25, 1964. Subject to any conditions specified by me limiting access to those materials and set forth in writing on the transcript prior to its being forwarded for the Library, such transcript and recording may be made available for research, dissemination, reproduction, publication and other appropriate use, in whole or in part, as determined by the Director of the Library. (signed) (date) Accepted: (signed} (date} Walter C. Williams Table of Contents Page Topic 1 Williams’ interactions and visits with John F. Kennedy [JFK] 1, 7, 12, 14, 22 Alan Shepard space flight, May 1961 2, 24 JFK’s personality 3, 6, 9, 14, 17, 22 JFK’s support and interest for the space program 5 Medals and awards 8, 16, 20 Williams and the Mercury Program 9, 19 Space flight risks to astronauts 10, 12, 15 Redstone missions 16, 20 The press and the space program 23 Dyna-Soar program Addendum I Williams’ biography Addendum II National Aeronautics and Space Administration news release, October 23, 1963 ORAL HISTORY PROJECT JOHN F. KENNEDY LIBRARY Interview with Dr. Walter c. Williams Deputy Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Operations National Aeronautics and Space Administration Recorded on March 25, 1964, at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Interviewee: ~ f!a./li aa;;tt/(r,P Walter C. Williams Interviewers: ~ _c-/ h__p-1~ '/ ),/))- ;;J- ,1[//))v dJ?:_ Addison M. Rothrock, NASA Consultant Interview with Dr. Walter C. Williams Dr. Emme: This tape record ing is an oral history interview with Dr. Walter Williams, Deputy Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Operations in NASA Headquarters, made expressly for the purpose of documenting for the record things which are not available in the documents, memories of other things associated with the Kennedy Administration, more particularly the program of the Space Agency with which Dr. Williams was very familiar as director of operations for Project Mercury. It was made on March 25 , 1964 , at NASA Headquarters. Dr . williams is being interviewed b y Mr. Addison Rothrock, Mr. Jay Holmes, and Dr. Eugene M. Emme . The Kennedy Library, of course, is most i nterested in the personal contacts that NASA top officials had with the late President. These are the memories that are most apt to slip and will help future historians, helping them document more fully the history of the past few years . Also, there are some very important features of the NASA space program on which Dr. Williams is really the only one who can shed any light upon various moments of decisi on which may not have involved personal cont.act with the Presi d ent, but certainly invo l ved recorrunendations and NASA positions whi ch got to the vn~ite House. Now we can classify this tape as you may see fit, or other­ wise restrict it •.. otherwise, I'd suggest we j ust wor k down the questions. Dr. Ernme: Could you describe your general recollections concerni ng the occasi ons you met and talked with Presi dent Kenn e dy? Dr. Williams: I met President Kennedy a number of times-­ usually following one of our manned space flights. The f i rst occasion was t he Alan Shepard flight in May of 1961, where Al and t he other six astronauts plus Bob Gilruth and I , and Dr. Douglas a nd Shorty Powers flew d i rectly from Grand Bahama Island to t he White House, first to Andrews Air Force Base, then in turn flew by helicopter and landed on the lawn. Interview with Dr. Walter c. Williams 2 On that occasion we met both the President and Mrs. Kennedy. Our contact with the President was quite brief; there was a presentation ceremony, but then he took off with Al Shepard to another meeting, a luncheon, elsewhere in Washington, and we remained with Mrs. Kennedy and others of the official fami ly until it was time to go to the Capitol. On this particular occasion, Mrs. Kennedy di d take us on a tour upstairs i n the White House, which was very interesting, and I guess I was impressed mostly by the warm friendliness of both the people, both the President and Mrs. Kennedy. They were very warm. The next occasion, of course, was the President's visit to the Cape after the Glenn flight [February 23, 1962] where he presented Glenn with the lNASA] Distinguished Service Medal and took a very quick tour of the Cape, including the Mercury Control Center. We did show him around the Control Center on that occasion. There was very little opportunity to talk because the crowds were extremely large; "a very hectic affair" would be t he best way to describe i t. Again, you were impressed by the man 's warm, friendly attitude and h is extreme interest in the program. He was q uite interested going through the Control Center, asking: "What happens here?" "What happens there?" "How does this thing come about?" Then, the next occasion was the visit with my family, the Carpenter family, and Astronaut Scott Carpenter after Scott ' s flight, which was in June of 1962. On this occasion, it was probably the first time that we had a real opportunity t o talk to the President, because it was an informal gat hering in his office with just the two families and, I believe, Pierre Salinger and one or two of our [NASA] public affairs people. We discussed the [space] program in generalities and how it was going. I don't recall anything too specific, b ut we d id discuss the oncoming programs like Gemini and Apollo as the followers to Mercury. Interview with Dr. Walter c. Williams 3 This was followed by a very short press conference. I might say that the significant discussion from this visit occurred as we were leaving. The President walked up to the auto­ mobiles with us behind his office, and, after the families had gotten into the cars, Scott and I stood there and talked with him for, I would guess, perhaps ten minutes. And the significant statement I remember the President making was essentially this: He realized this [space] program was terribly expensive, but he also wanted us to realize it was terribly important. He felt that we had three ways to battle the Soviets, or to compete with the Soviets--one bei ng nuclear war , which no one wanted unless in retaliation; the second being economic, which we were doing but which took time and would be a long haul; and the third, in this battle for - I wouldn't say the "favor" of the world, but for men's minds in competition with the Soviets - was the space program.