#4 He Suggested Working With The Soviets On The Moon Landing
Although Kennedy famously urged the nation to send a man to the moon by the end of the 1960s, before September 1963 he had grown so concerned about the exorbitant expense of the space program that he suggested working with the Soviet Union on a collaborative lunar mission.
He surprised both the Soviet government and also many Americans when he suggested that the two competing superpowers should work together to organize a mission to the moon.
Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union at that time, reportedly had second thoughts while rejecting the suggestion. Khrushchev concurred with his military leadership that such an operation would give the U.S. military a chance to understand more about Soviet ballistic missiles, but he also thought that the Soviets might be able to steal some important American technology.
This idea was abandoned not long after JFK’s passing, and each country moved through with its own moon landing programs.
