Apr 9 1972
From The Space Library
Americans were wondering why U.S. spent "$40 billion" to land on moon rather than on programs for social action, Jeffrey St. John commented in Los Angeles Times article. "The fact remains, however, that long before the landing of Apollo 11 public funds for social problems on earth had risen far beyond the annual space budgets. In 1972, the federal government has earmarked $100 billion for social action programs, as opposed to $3.2 billion for space. The ratio of expenditures for space and social action programs during the 15 years of the space effort has been roughly 11 to 1 in favor of social action." Lunar landing had been "triumph of 400,000 scientists, engineers, and technologists and the sophisticated expertise of 20,000 private companies, large and small." Apollo had been "clear-cut example of a successful government venture" but on earth Government had "made a mess of the social landscape." Compounding irrationality was refusal of liberals to understand why "space program succeeded, largely as a private endeavor coordinated by government, and why social problems grow worse under government's guidance." To accomplish lunar mission, space program participants had needed two crucial elements: "intellectual freedom" to analyze a problem correctly and "strict observance of natural laws." In social problem-solving, intellectual freedom was abandoned for political expediency that played one pressure group against another and "there is a continual violation of certain immutable natural laws. Namely, the refusal of the social planners to believe the slums and poverty can be the products of an absence of individual initiative and enterprise." (LA Times, 4/9/72)
The Kremlin & The Cosmos by Nicholas Daniloff was reviewed in New Haven Register. Book by UPI correspondent who worked in Moscow from 1961 through 1966 detailed Soviet space achievements and forecast U.S.-U.S.S.R. cooperation in space through which "new side to the many facets of Soviet-American understanding will develop." Author had drawn information from public and private sources including "defectors to the West." Chapter was devoted to "intriguing subject of the Soviet press' handling of Russian ventures into space." (Desruisseaux, N Hav Reg, 4/9/72)
Congressional restraints on sale of military aircraft and equipment to developing nations were "not working," and had cost U.S. aerospace industry "more than $800 million and 70,000 to 90,000 jobs in the last two years," Copley News Service reported. Denied credit purchases of jets and other modern aeronautical equipment, nations once de- pendent on U.S. had turned to United Kingdom, France, Italy, Scandinavian countries, and Japan. U.S.S.R. was "trying to push its way into the market, particularly in Latin America." (San Diego Union, 4/9/72, 20)
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