Spaceflight and the myth of presidential leadership
By: edited by Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy.
Contributors: Launius, Roger D.; McCurdy, Howard E.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 262
Subjects: Astronautics and state -- United States.; Presidents -- United States.; Executive power -- United States.; Astronautics -- United States -- Public opinion.
Description: In Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership, ten contributors present compelling arguments and analyses that shed new light on the power and leadership of the nation's presidency and on the space program.

Setting the tone for the collection, Roger Launius and Howard McCurdy maintain that the nation's presidency had become imperial by the mid-1970s and that supporters of the space program had grown to find relief in such a presidency, which they believed could help them obtain greater political support and funding. Subsequent chapters explore the roles and political leadership, vis-a-vis government policy, of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The reluctant racer, Dwight D. Eisenhower and United States space policy / David Callahan and Fred I. Greenstein; title: Kennedy and the decision to go to the moon / Michael Beschloss; title: Johnson, Project Apollo, and the politics of space program planning / Robert Dallek; title: The presidency, Congress, and the deceleration of the U.S. space program in the 1970s / Joan Hoff; title: Politics not science, the U.S. space program in the Reagan and Bush years / Lyn Ragsdale; title: Presidential leadership and international aspects of the space program / Robert Ferrell; title: National leadership and presidential power / John M. Logsdon.