Roger D. Launius and J. D. Hunley

“ The author, then teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, argues that Apollo prompted the space program to become identified almost exclusively with high-profile, expensive, human space flight projects. This was because Apollo became a race against the Soviet Union for recognition as the world leader in science and technology, and by extension in other fields as well. McDougall juxtaposes the American effort of Apollo with the Soviet space program and the dreams of such designers as Sergei P. Korolev to land a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. ”

“ Eisenhower always opposed the idea of an aggressive lunar landing program, for as he said at a meeting in February 1958 "he would rather have a good Redstone than be able to hit the moon, for we didn't have any enemies on the moon."
Caiden, Martin. War for the Moon. New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1959. This presents a strong case for the U.S. to rush to the Moon, framed in the context of the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union, written at the time that the first lunar probes were being launched. ”

“ One of the better discussions, although not written with scholarly apparatus, of the race between the United States and the Soviet Union to the Moon in the 1960s. The answer to the question in the title, the authors contend, is a resounding yes. Using recently available Soviet documents, they find that the Soviets made several secret attempts to develop hardware for a lunar landing that would beat the U.S. to the Moon. ”