Jacome, Marc

Remembering the Space Race: Nationalism and Heroic White America

I. Introduction

On September 12th, 1962, forty thousand people gathered at

Rice Stadium in Huston Texas to listen to President John F.

Kennedy’s televised message to the nation. In light of the Soviet

Union’s success in sending the first human into space, Kennedy

declared that in order to win this “race for space” and reach the

Moon, America “must be bold.” Although the journey would be the

“most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man

has ever embarked,” America has accepted this risk and “choose[s]

to go to the moon.” In Kennedy’s eyes, America must “conquer”

space just as the famous explorers of world history conquered the

new world. (Kennedy 1962). As a charismatic individual, Kennedy’s

grandiose metaphors and imageries were not uncommon. But, by

framing the United States as a powerful, heroic, risk-taking

conqueror, Kennedy’s discourse affirmed a vision of United States

nationalism founded on both masculinity and whiteness. This

rhetoric not only reflected how America understood the

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spaceflight at the time, but also composed a specific nationalist

narrative which would come to shape America’s historical

understanding of the ‘Space Race.’

This paper seeks to trace the genealogy of this nationalist

narrative through media representations from the Space Race’s

early inception to the present day. Born from the paranoia of the

Soviet Union and communism, this narrative of American

spaceflight arose as a tool to inspire nationalism and unite the

American public. But neither Space Age nationalism nor its

historical representations can be separated from the ideological

underpinnings of whiteness and masculinity which have permeated

American society. Kennedy’s ideologically loaded speech can be

seen as one of the many ways in which these not-so latent biases

emerged. Since the space age, alternative representations of the

Space Race have emerged in an attempt to dethrone this narrative.

This paper will explore how both the Apollo 11 conspiracy theory,

as well as the late-1960’s environmental movement represented a

counter-culture in American society that sought to challenge the

ideological assumptions of the dominant narrative. The emergence

of these powerful counter-narratives however, did not spell the

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end of the nationalist representation. In fact, in spite of these

counter-narratives, the nationalist, exclusionary undertones of

the dominant narrative remain to this day.

Media representations provide a unique medium by which

historical analysis can understand the dynamic representations of

the Space Race. First of all, media imagery, whether it is

television, cinema or news, acts as a mirror that reflects

popular sentiments and societal assumptions (Keltner 2007).

Thus, an examination of these sources can provide insight into

how society understood this era. Additionally, because space lies

outside the boundaries of individual empirical observations, the

public’s view of space only existed (/exists) through

authoritative accounts. In an age in which media filters these

accounts, media had the additional role of shaping the public’s

very understanding of space (Rosenberg 2008). Thus, in a cyclical

fashion, media had a dual role of both reflecting popular

representations and reinforcing them as well.

II. Before Nationalism: Space and the Red Scare

It is important to understand that the nationalism which

arose as a result of the Space Race was not a historical anomaly;

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rather, it was the product of the deep seated anxiety and

paranoia that characterized the dawn of the Cold War. After World

War II, tensions between the former allies, the Soviet Union and

United States, rose a point at which the two sides saw themselves

and their ideologies in direct competition with one another. This

mutual process of demonization solidified an ostensibly

irreconcilable enmity between the two sides. In the immediate

aftermath of World War II, the Soviet Union ended the United

States’ monopoly on the atomic bomb by developing and testing its

own. For the first time in United States history, America at

large feared the legitimate possibility that they faced an

existential threat from the Soviet Union’s nuclear capacity. From

thereon out, the anxiety of the situation motivated both sides to

horizontally and vertically proliferate their nuclear arsenals in

order to secure victory in this arms race. Nevertheless, the fear

of Soviet power was not the only source of anxiety. The Soviet

Union’s rapid acquisition of the atomic bomb itself raised

serious questions about how the Soviet Union developed such

technology within a short time span. Many feared that Soviet

spies in the United States had breached the federal government

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and given the Soviet Union the requisite nuclear intelligence.

When, in March of 1950, two American citizens, Julius and Ethel

Rosenberg, were convicted for nuclear espionage, public paranoia

reached new heights. In the time period known as the Second Red

Scare, the American people would direct this fear towards an

overall anxiety of communism (Mora 2013). The fact that communism

had been spreading all over China, Europe and Korea only placed

the public in a permanent state of insecurity about whether

communism could bring about the end of the United States itself.

This Red Scare paranoia which permeated American society was

channeled into America’s understanding of space long before the

Space Race even began. The 1950 film Destination Moon exemplifies

how space exploration became synthesized with the fear of a

foreign military threat. The plot revolves around the United

States’ mission to become the first nation to land a human on the

moon. The mission, under the guidance of the United States army,

is framed as crucial to America’s military security. While it was

not the first movie about journeying to the Moon, it was the

first one to frame the venture in such an ominous tone. Subtle

features throughout demonstrate why this film is historically

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understood as a product of the Red Scare paranoia. The fact that

the mission is military in nature reflects the securitization

against ‘other’ military threats. Although the movie never

explicitly references the Soviet Union as the nation that poses

the threat, for any movie-goer of the 1950’s, it was all but too

clear which country represented this security threat (Lanius

2008). While elements of the movie such as the ultimate success

of the American space program have some nationalist elements, it

is clear that Destination Moon focuses on exploiting the sense of

fear and paranoia which was an intrinsic part of the era of the

Red Scare. Other space-related science fiction movies such as

Invaders from Mars (1953) or Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

illustrate that the movies of this time period were aiming for

pseudo-horror by focusing on issues such as alien-espionage as an

implicit reference to communist espionage (Rosenberg 2007).

Destination Moon was unique in it being one of the first widely

popularized space-related science fiction movies. In addition to

reflecting the paranoia of the era, the film also participated in

the active social construction of space as an object to conquer.

By understanding space as simply a ‘destination,’ the brought

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back the ideological underpinnings of the frontier mentality of

Manifest Destiny to the area of space. It is from these

foundations that nationalism would arise as a dominant ideology

of the Space Age.

III. The Dawn of the Space Race

On October 4th, 1957, the unthinkable became reality when

Russia sent Sputnik into orbit and claimed the title of the first

spacefaring nation. As millions of Americans looked to the stars

to see the Soviet satellite, the fear of Soviet domination came

to the forefront of America’s collective consciousness. Thus,

what would later be known as the Space Race began. Given the

heightened tensions of the Cold War, Russia’s thrust into space

was seen as a challenge to America – the only rational response

became a competition the likes of the arms race which coincided

with it. The United States began to pour billions in its space

program in an attempt to ‘beat out’ the Russians in space. Like

Kennedy, many writers and politicians began to frame space as a

crucial ‘frontier’ to conquer if the United States were to

survive the Cold War. The media served as an indispensable tool

in the formation of this nationalist image: for example, TV

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journalists like NBC’s Walter Cronkite became ‘Space

Journalists.’ By framing space development in terms of a ‘Space

Race,’ Cronkite, along with other journalists, played an

instrumental role in propagating a securitized, nationalist

vision of space exploration. In spite (or perhaps because) of

its gross inaccuracies and exaggerations concerning space policy,

Cronkite’s show became a hit and generated nationalist fervor

throughout the nation (Oberg 2006).The importance of his show

could be demonstrated by his extreme popularity and his

recognition as “most trusted man in America.”

The rhetoric of a competitive ‘space race’ along with a

heightened state of insecurity laid the foundations for the birth

of a reinvigorated spirit of nationalism determined to counter

Russia. Like other waves of American nationalism, those who

constructed this narrative attempted to create universal values

and images that all Americans would promote. In a period of

massive racial and gender disparity, one must question how

universal this nationalism was. Space Age nationalism came to be

known through two distinct, yet related, images which held

problematic associations: the astronaut and the frontier. The

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gendered and racial undertones of both images created an

exclusionary form of national identity and nationalism that

proved inaccessible to those who were not white males.

At the height of the Space Race, the public came to regard

astronauts as national celebrities. The Apollo astronauts were

not only valued for their occupation, but, in the media, they

represented what it meant to be a true American. The masculine

values of Kennedy’s moon speech such as heroism, risk-taking and

boldness, took on the human form of the astronaut. Life magazine

wrote numerous articles dedicated to the ‘all-American astronaut’

who, without fail, was white, protestant and male. The wives of

these astronauts were praised for their domesticity and

highlighted as exemplar models for all women (Rosenberg 2008). By

tying men to the image of the heroic astronaut and women to the

role of being domestic care takers, the media not only washed

over the importance of women in the Space Race, but affirmed the

gender stereotype that only men could be the rugged pioneers who

would lead the United States through the dangers of space

(Keltner 2007). Still, the discriminatory undertones prevalent in

media coverage were not limited to gender. The race of the

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‘American’ astronaut also asserted a similar binary between the

stereotypical successful, heroic, moral white American and the

lazy, unintelligent, immoral black male. For the majority of the

American public, the characteristics of the ideal astronaut

naturally seemed ‘white.’

By the 1960’s the second image, the frontier, became the

dominant representation of the space. Although this image was

nothing more than a metaphor for the void of space, the choice to

frame this void as another frontier reflected Americans’

ideological understanding of space itself. Born from the Kennedy

Administration’s motto ‘The New Frontier,’ space was seen as an

extension of the Wild West in which the United States could

venture off into the unknown and conquer distant lands. Not only

did this representation complement the image of an astronaut as a

heroic pioneer, the idea of space as a frontier also reaffirmed

the colonialist history founded on the idea of white supremacy

and manifest destiny (Rosenberg 2007).

IV. The End of the Space Race and the Birth of the Counter-

Narratives

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Finally, on July 20, 1969, the United States demonstrated

its technological dominance in space by successfully completing

Apollo 11, the United States’ mission to the moon. As ninety-six

percent of the nation watched in amazement, history was made as

man set his foot on the moon. America had conquered the moon and

Old Glory was left there to prove it. The excitement surrounding

the mission was unmatched. Along with nationalism, the Space Race

and Apollo 11 came to also signal American triumphalism. In the

immediate aftermath of Apollo 11, America felt it had proven its

superiority and the media was quick to reflect this sentiment.

Cronkite came to hail it as a “U.S. achievement,” which proved

that there is “nothing that we [America] can’t do eventually.”

For the next month, one would have been hard pressed to turn on

the television and not find the images of the American Flag or

the Moon on the news (Keltner 2007).

But despite the fact that Apollo 11 represented the peak of

nationalist fervor, it was also the last great space mission and

from thereon after, Space Age nationalism would lose its

strongest engine. As the psychological power of this nationalism

waned, a wave of counter-narratives that would seek to challenge

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this dominant narrative. Although the nationalist representation

of the Space Race never dissipated, several historical events

immediately following 1969 created serious doubts in the American

institution, paving the way for these alternative narratives of

the Space Age.

The 1970’s drastically altered the political landscape and

sentiments of the national population. The later years of the

Vietnam War as well as the Watergate Scandal dealt serious blows

to both the credibility of the national government and the

willingness of citizens to support their national government. At

the height of the Space Race in 1964, 76% of Americans polled

“expressed confidence in the ability of their national government

to do what is right.” After Vietnam and Watergate, the confidence

polled was less than 25% (Lanius 2007). Due the cynicism in

government and the decline of nationalism, two influential anti-

nationalist interpretations of the Space Race emerged. The first

focused on the Apollo 11 mission and claimed that it was a

government ploy to distract the nation from its woes and the

second focused on pictures taken during the Space Era and

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attempted to frame the Space Race as part of a universal human

recognition of the beauty of the environment and Earth.

V. The Moon Conspiracy Theory

From the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the terrorist

attacks of September 11th, it is clear that the rise of

conspiracy theories has been a common, albeit interesting, aspect

of American history. The Moon conspiracy theory, as its name

suggests, centers on the idea that NASA fabricated the Apollo 11

moon landings. As early as a few months after Apollo 11, a

number of individuals from isolated parts of the country began

circulating the idea that, as a 1970 issue of the Atlanta Constitution

put it, Neil Armstrong “took his giant step for mankind somewhere

in Arizona.” The first legitimate attempt to make a sustained

case against the truthfulness of Apollo 11 would not come till

1974 when a journalist named Bill Kaysing released his pamphlet,

We Never Went to the Moon. In this pamphlet, Kaysing attacked the

very idea that the United States was technologically competent

enough to complete such a mission. Furthermore, he cited certain

problems with photographs taken during the mission such as the

lack of stars in the background along with the waving appearance

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of the flag despite space’s airless environment. Kaysing argued

that, to the United States, the Space Race was too big to lose

and thus, manufacturing the evidence was the only feasible

alternative. While only five years prior to its release Kaysing’s

argument would have been treated as treason, events such as the

Vietnam War or the Watergate Scandal had created widespread

distrust in the government. Kaysing’s pamphlet was both a

reflection of this distrust, as well as a historically

significant piece which encouraged other writers to follow in his

footsteps. As more journalists gave their own take on the

conspiracy, the theory gained even more popularity among both the

media and the public. In 1978, movie director Peter Hyams

capitalized on these sentiments by releasing the movie Capricorn

One, in which the government fakes a Mars landing. Although the

film is about a Mars mission, the similarities between the

fictionalized universe and the time of Apollo 11 are apparent.

The movie depicts NASA, under immense political pressure to show

its viability, simply counterfeiting a video in which they land

on Mars and threatening anyone who goes to the press. As the

American public watches the mission on their small box television

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sets, the public becomes convinced that America had made the

‘greatest achievement known to man’ and landed on Mars. However,

demonstrating the simplicity of a space-based government

conspiracy, the film spread doubt in the minds of the American

public.

While there were numerous different articles, movies and

journals written about the moon conspiracy, each source preserves

an anti-nationalist sentiment constructed in opposition to the

dominant nationalist narrative. As conspiracy theory expert Chip

Berlot explains, in all conspiracy theories there exist mutually

reinforcing elements of dualism and demonization. After first

constructing the world in terms of good and evil (dualism), the

conspiracy theorists then assign an individual or group as the

personification of evil (demonization). In the eyes of the

conspirator, there is always a belief that this ‘evil’ force has

been involved in a well-organized plot to carry out some sinister

goal (Lanius 2009). In the case of the Moon conspiracy, it is the

federal government itself who assigned to the sinister position.

By adopting this cynical view of the federal government, the Moon

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conspiracy theory espoused a view diametrically opposed to the

heroic, noble vision of the United States.

In addition to directly challenging nationalism, the Moon

conspiracy offered an alternative, more appealing narrative of

the Space Race for those who could not connect to the

exclusionary form of space era nationalism. Given the whiteness

of space age nationalism, there was an overall disconnectedness

between the federal government’s space efforts and minority

communities. At the same time that the federal government and

NASA spoke about the unity of Americans under the space program,

race riots in Chicago, Detroit and other cities reminded African

Americans that this unity was a façade. Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970

spoken word poem titled Whiteys on the Moon demonstrated how, to

African Americans, Apollo 11 (as well as the overall space

effort) was not an example of national achievement, only

‘Whiteys’ achievement. Given this disconnectedness, when the

anti-nationalist Moon conspiracy theory gained popularity, some

African Americans would channel this discontent toward a denial

of Apollo 11. Polls at the time reveal that, whereas in most

cities the amount of individuals who doubted the moon landing

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averaged at five percent, fifty four percent of African Americans

in those same cities held suspicions that America had not truly

gone to the moon (Bowdley 2003). This statistic does not prove

African American denial of Apollo 11 was a universal phenomenon.

However, it does suggest that since African Americans were not as

easily caught up in nationalistic fervor, it would have been

easier for many to channel their discontent with the government

into a denial of the mission.

VI. The Environmental Movement

On April 22nd, 1970, the world celebrated its first Earth

Day. From that day forward, the world would continue to annually

recognize this day as a time to recognize the importance of

environmental protection and our identity as Earthlings. The

emergence of Earth Day marked the beginning of an environmental

consciousness which lay the foundations for a new countercultural

movement. This movement would seek to abandon national identity

in favor of a global identity which would recognize human

solidarity. However, many individuals fail to recognize that this

global movement was only made possible by a move to reframe the

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1960’s wave of space exploration away from its characterization

as a Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The attempt to characterize the Space Race as a global human

endeavor traces its roots back to as early as 1966 with the book

Human Values on the Spaceship Earth. Kenneth Boulding, the author of

the book, attempted to portray Earth as a spaceship traversing

through the mystical void of space. The book argued that, we, as

global citizens, must take care of our human spaceship in order

to survive for the foreseeable future. The appeal to the

solidarity of humanity would be an important characteristic of

this, call for environmental action, as well as of future ones.

To frame it as such would be an explicit rejection to the United

States’ call for nationalist fervor against the Soviet Union.

However, the environmental movement would not gain significant

ground until the publication of NASA’s photos of Earth in Stewart

Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog in 1968. Brand himself lobbied for NASA

to release the photos that satellites and astronauts had taken

during the 60’s. He believed that the image of the Earth would

become a powerful icon of the environmental movement that would

invoke the spirit of shared consciousness and aesthetic

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appreciation for the mystic universe. For Brand and the youth of

the generation, it was time to begin a countercultural movement

that would reorient humanity’s relationship towards each other

and the universe. Like Brand expected, these images of ‘Mother

Earth’ were largely successful in inspiring the population to

become more environmentally aware (Kirk 2011). Again, it is

important to note that the growth of this anti-nationalist

movement could not be separated from the growing discontent with

the United States. As the Anti-Vietnam War countercultural

movement grew in strength, its participants became attracted to

the Environmental movement’s peaceful, utopian discourse. Soon,

the two movements became closely interrelated and the

Environmental movement began to borrow political strategies from

the former. Environmentalists held rallies in which they would

they would play off of anti-war slogans. Instead of ‘Give Peace a

Chance’, environmental rallies shouted to ‘Give Earth a Chance’

(Rome 2003). By building off of the dissatisfaction born from

the Vietnam War, the Earth movement gained significant

popularity. The establishment of the first Earth Day was a

testament to the growth of the anti-nationalist movement.

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Yet in presenting an alternative narrative to human space

flight, the environmental movement not only challenged

nationalism, but also reframed America’s understanding of space

away from its problematic representation as a frontier to

conquer. Environmentalists attempted to challenge the ‘outward’

focus of the Space Age by arguing for the importance of taking

care of ‘Spaceship Earth.’ In both the nationalist and the

environmentalist outlook, the universe was nothing more than a

mystical and incomprehensible void. While nationalists focused on

colonizing that void, environmentalists simply stressed the

aesthetic beauty of the void itself. To them, the paramount

concern of society was not conquering the space around us, but

preserving its beauty, starting with the preservation of

‘Spaceship Earth.’ With this focus on ‘taking care’ of Earth, the

environmental movement also challenged the masculinity behind

Space Age nationalism by promoting feminine values. By promoting

the image of ‘Mother Earth,’ environmentalists celebrated the

fact that Earth had taken care of humanity and stressed the

importance of adopting a reciprocal maternal relationship (Rome

2003). Although the association between the female sex and

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maternal behavior had its own problematic gendered assumptions,

the endorsement characteristics seen as ‘feminine’ nevertheless

challenged society’s exclusive admiration for masculinity.

VII. The Retreat from Space and Contemporary Nostalgia

As the years went by, the Space Race faded from the

forefront popular culture to become a mere historical memory.

After the early 70’s, American’s concern with space also

declined. Incidents such as the Apollo 13 failure, the Space

Shuttle Challenger disaster and the Colombia disaster only

psychologically pushed Americans even further away from space. In

times of austerity, NASA’s budget had routinely been cut to the

point of being utterly insignificant (Lanius 2009). For decades

thereafter, space programs would receive little attention beyond

infrequent news coverage.

However, the retreat from space did not signify the end of

America’s memories of the Space Race. Despite the disinterest in

venturing into space, contemporary representations of the Space

Race demonstrate a recreation of the nationalistic narrative

through a sense of nostalgia. The 1996 film Apollo 11 is

reminiscent of the same sense of triumphalism which existed after

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the Apollo 11 mission itself. The film tells the classic story of

the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union:

In the face of the scary Soviet threat, the United States pulls

together, through struggle and persistence, and lands a man on

the moon. Many later films would replicate this same romantic

vision of the Apollo era Space Race missions which would act as

testaments to American victory. The nostalgia for the spirit of

the Space Race triumph has been such a constant feature of the

last decades that it seems to have been a subconscious part of

America’s psyche (Dick 2007).

This nostalgia not only reaffirms the nationalism of the

era, but also the exclusionary ideologies which were born with

it. Nostalgia for the nationalism and unity of the Space Race

litter many magazines and articles that speak to the issue

(Keltner 2007). However, this rhetoric demonstrates ignorance to

the violent racial divisions of the society which prove that this

era was anything but unified. The frontier ideology also remains

ever-present. In popular media, the Moon can rarely be spoken to

without also referencing Apollo 11 – i.e. the conquering of the

Moon (Keltner 2007). Documentaries such as The History Channel’s

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Triumph and Tragedy recreate the conception of space as a frontier

by characterizing America a “nation of explorers…like Columbus.”

In the documentary, the masculinity of the astronauts is also

emphasized by speaking to their “heroism” and the danger they

overcame. This contemporary nostalgia for the Space Race thus

cannot be separated from the exclusion which permeated the era.

VIII. Conclusion

Although the history of these representations of the Space

Race is short, recognizing the historical contingency of these

representations can provide us a useful understanding of how to

deconstruct the problematic representations of today. Despite the

existence and temporal popularity of multiple counter-narratives

of the Space Race, neither one was able to usurp the dominant

ideology. Yet the mere existence of these counter-narratives

should remind us that the dominant narrative need not exist. As

we can see, the nationalistic narrative has greatly influenced

our understanding of the Space Race and space itself. Thus, by

recognizing how this exclusionary ideology has recreated itself,

one can problematize the discourse and representations we use

today in order to more properly understand these issues.

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Works Cited

Bowdley, David. "Hollywood Goes to the Moon: The Greatest Hoax ofThem All?" IOP Science Journal 38.5 (2003): 406-12. Print.

Kirk, Andrew G. Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism. Lawrence, Kan.: University of Kansas, 2007. Print.

Rosenberg, Emily S. 2008 “Remembrance and Cultural Representationof the Space Age” <http://history.nasa.gov/Remembering_Space_Age_B.pdf> April 1, 2013

Lanius Roger. 2009. “Denying the Apollo Moon Landings: Conspiracyand Questioning in Modern American History” <http://www.smithsonianconference.org/apollo/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Denying-the-Apollo-Moon-Landings.pdf April 7, 2013> April 4th, 2013

Rome, Adam. “Give Earth a Chance: The Environmental Movement and the Sixties." Journal of American History (2003): 1-30. <Http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/issues/902/902_rome.pdf.> April 18th, 2013

Keltner, Kathy. From Myth to Metaphor to Memory. Ohio University, 2007.Print

Dick, Steven J. Societal Impact of Spaceflight. History Division, 2007. Print.

Oberg, James. "Cronkite on Space: Inspiration, Not Information." The Space Review:. 6 Mar. 2006. <http://www.thespacereview.com/article/570/1> April 5th 2013.

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Media Sources

Apollo 11. Dir. Norberto Barba. Lulu Zezza. 1996. Film

Capricorn One. Dir. Peter Hyams. ITC Entertainment. 1978. Film

Boulding, Kenneth. Human Values on the Spaceship Earth. 1966.

Brand, Stewart. Whole Earth Catalog.1968.

CBS Evening News, CBS, Walter Cronkite, Los Angeles.

Destination Moon. Dir. Irving Pichel. George Pal Productions. 1950.Film

Gil Scott-Heron. Whiteys on the Moon. 1970

Kaysing, Bill. We Never Went to the Moon. 1974.

Kennedy, John F. 1962 “John F. Kennedy Moon Speech - Rice Stadium” <http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm> April 8, 2013

"Many Doubt Man‘s Landing on Moon." Atlanta Constitution 15 June 1970:n. pag. Print.

Triumph & Tragedy. The History Channel, New York City. 1999