On Being Fierce

discoverynews:

In Event of Moon Disaster

On July 18 of 1969, as the world waited anxiously for Apollo 11 to land safely on the surface of the Moon, speechwriter William Safire imagined the worst case scenario as he expertly wrote the following sombre memo to President Nixon’s Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman. Its contents: a contingency plan, in the form of a speech to be read out by Nixon should astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become stranded on the moon, never to return, followed by some brief instructions relating to its broadcast. Luckily for all those involved, the memo was never needed.

Image courtesy of The National Archives.

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    What our world would’ve been like if President Nixon gave this speech… It’s astonishing to realize that these speeches...

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    I hope it’s not just me but the line in this “That there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind”...

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