Excerpt from Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs by John F. Kennedy
Excerpt from Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs
Presented on May 25, 1961
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63) addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress and declared that the United States would be the first nation to put a man on the Moon. He vowed that this goal would be reached by the end of the decade. Kennedy's announcement came at a crucial time in U.S. history. The United States and the former Soviet Union were engaged in a period of hostile relations known as the Cold War (1945–91). They were competing for military superiority as well as dominance in space. Nearly four years earlier, on October 5, 1957, Americans had been stunned to learn that the former Soviet Union had launched the Sputnik 1 satellite (a man-made device that orbits Earth; see First Satellite entry). The Soviets had thus become the first country to put a craft into orbit successfully. American morale was shaken: Many citizens looked at the Soviet Union as a backward nation incapable of competing with the United States. Kennedy realized the importance of rallying the nation behind a cause, and he made that cause winning the race to the Moon.
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