There is something truly awsome about the fact that we put a man on the Moon. Considering how close to my heart the Apollo Space Program is, it is hard for me to imagine that every American isn't so spell bound by this accomplishment. Below is a paper relating the Apollo program to the American myth. For me, the lunar landing is the American myth, but it is actually just one form of American mythology circa 1969.
Contrary to Richard Hughes’ assertion in Myths America Lives By, the doctrine of manifest destiny did not perish in the 19th century. Rather, manifest destiny and the doctrine’s constituent myths of Nature’s Nation, Christian Nation, and Millennial Nation were reflected in the Apollo space program. Had he lived to see the day, Alexander Campbell, a 19th century religious leader and editor of Millennial Harbinger would have considered America’s conquering of the Moon further proof of her manifest destiny:
“The Lord Almighty who has now girdled the earth from east to west with the Anglo-Saxon people, the Anglo-Saxon tongue, sciences, learning and civilization, by giving colossal power and grandeur to Great Britain and the United States over the continents and oceans of the earth, will continue to extend that power [...] from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth […].”
And, he might have added, “to the Moon above.” Campbell, like other postmillennialists, believed that once America achieved worldly dominion, the prophecy of the millennium could be fulfilled and peace would reign on earth. What better symbol of America’s manifest destiny than when two of her citizens planted an American flag on the surface of the Moon.
The myth that America is a Millennial Nation was fulfilled when President Kennedy’s promise to land a man on the Moon was realized. In one interpretation of the millennial myth, America leads the world down the path of progress that culminates in either a heaven on Earth ruled by Christ, or a secular golden age, where Reason and Science reign supreme. One major milestone on that path was achieved when Neal Armstrong alighted on the Moon and proclaimed, “That was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Since the discovery of fire, the torch of wisdom and science has been carried westward from the primitives, to the cradle of civilization in the Middle East, to Greece, to Rome, to Europe, to England, and finally to America where the torch was used to ignite the Saturn V rocket, setting fire to the seven and half million pounds of thrust necessary to put a one-hundred-sixty pound man on the Moon.
The Moon landing represented mankind’s mastery of nature and therefore validated the myth of America as Nature’s Nation. In the words of a NASA historian, “A unique confluence of political necessity, personal commitment and activism, scientific and technological ability, economic prosperity, and public mood made possible the 1961 decision to carry out an aggressive lunar landing program.” Only America could accomplish something of this magnitude. The single greatest example of mankind’s dominance of the natural world was realized when an American set foot on the Moon. According to the myth of Nature’s Nation, capitalism and democracy are the only “natural,” and therefore legitimate, economic and political systems. Foremost in Kennedy’s mind when he committed the nation to landing an American on the moon by the end of the 1960’s was the necessity to demonstrate to the Soviet Union and to the world, that democracy was the right government and capitalism was the right economic system.
Parallel to the path lit by science and reason, America has followed a path lit by religion. While every gram brought aboard the command capsule was counted, astronauts brought along copies of the Bible. During the lunar orbit by the Apollo 8 spacecraft, the crew transmitted photos of the Earth and Moon to an eager audience back home accompanied by this verse from Genesis, “And God created the heavens and the Earth, and the Earth was without form and void.” For the first time, the Earth was seen from afar as a planet alone in the heavens, simultaneously signifying the smallness of man and the subdual of the Earth as commanded in Genesis 1:28. Many saw the Moon landing as more than the triumph of technology and government; it was the triumph of a God fearing republic over a godless, communist nation. The success of the Moon landing meant that God had indeed blessed America.
For all that is mythical about the mission to the Moon, perhaps it is the notion that America is making progress towards a golden age that is the real myth. For how can Americans talk of progress when as men walked on the Moon, men were dying in the jungles of Vietnam? As America built rocket engines with millions of pounds of thrust, the nation was also building bombs with megatons of destruction. While Martin Luther King dreamed that the promises of the Declaration of Independence might someday apply to all Americans, the racial make-up of the astronauts meant that the Apollo program, like so much else in America, was a whites-only dream. It is ironic that during a time when so many Americans were disillusioned by America’s myths, America would celebrate something of such mythic proportions.
