Mania around 1969 moon landing was never destined to last - Yorkshire Post letters

From: Howard H Smith, Victoria Road, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan.
Events have been taking place to mark the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, including a Museum of the Moon exhibition in Harrogate last month.Events have been taking place to mark the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, including a Museum of the Moon exhibition in Harrogate last month.
Events have been taking place to mark the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, including a Museum of the Moon exhibition in Harrogate last month.

TV stations went “into orbit” recently to mark 50 years since America squandered billions – “for mankind” – by propelling three men in a tin can to the Moon, while many fellow “earthlings” suffer crippling poverty, hunger and a lack of clean water and sanitation.

How man got to the moon: The extraordinary story of the Apollo 11 missionDespite being hailed by the world’s leaders and media in 1969 as an epoch-making event that would “bring the world together in peace” – in reality it was just one small step for man; one giant leap for hypocrisy.

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The moon landing is at the heart of a new space exhibition at the National Science and Media MuseumUS President Richard Nixon’s “historic” live telephone message to Apollo 11’s crew, as to how their achievement “inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquillity to Earth” could have easily been mistaken for an unexpected belch of hot rocket gas.

A Yorkshire Post front page on the moon landing from 1969.A Yorkshire Post front page on the moon landing from 1969.
A Yorkshire Post front page on the moon landing from 1969.

Apollo 11 and the first moon landing 50 years onHis phone was barely back on the hook before he extended the senseless slaughter in Vietnam and ordered the invasion of Cambodia. “Moon-mania” wasn’t to last.

By the early ’70s the public’s interest in space had fizzled out and the novel idea of Man bringing lasting – real – peace to the world by “lunar love” had also been jettisoned.

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