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.

Source: lettersofnote.com

761 notesShowHide

  1. neverwearpants-liveforever reblogged this from dorkvader
  2. chadmbrown reblogged this from lukasborton and added:
    Sigh of relief over a successful PLAN A.
  3. cash4rimjobs reblogged this from deliriun
  4. deliriun reblogged this from pazozosaurus
  5. bethanamyralph reblogged this from discoverynews
  6. mooonbeams reblogged this from discoverynews and added:
    discoverynews
  7. itriedtoresist reblogged this from theatlantic
  8. misssusiehadasteamboat reblogged this from realityshmality
  9. realityshmality reblogged this from inkbatts
  10. inkbatts reblogged this from kingdandelion
  11. swallow-tailedkite reblogged this from discoverynews
  12. yavannakementaris reblogged this from notthedroidyouarelookingfor
  13. drewsof reblogged this from iamjohnharrison and added:
    What our world would’ve been like if President Nixon gave this speech… It’s astonishing to realize that these speeches...
  14. cicerothewriter reblogged this from lord-kitschener
  15. islandadventures reblogged this from lord-kitschener and added:
    I hope it’s not just me but the line in this “That there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind”...
  16. hierophanthistorian reblogged this from lord-kitschener
  17. iamjohnharrison reblogged this from notthedroidyouarelookingfor
  18. silentworldpilot reblogged this from notthedroidyouarelookingfor and added:
    Intense.
  19. keybrows reblogged this from heymatthewwelcometothe60s
  20. sammyknapp reblogged this from notthedroidyouarelookingfor
  21. heymatthewwelcometothe60s reblogged this from lord-kitschener
  22. abiromanticbisexual reblogged this from lord-kitschener
  23. lord-kitschener reblogged this from notthedroidyouarelookingfor