President Kennedy lives - and cuts back the space program

So I was reading this blog post on the Nixon administration space policy, and it mentions this interesting tidbit:

By 1963, as Logsdon wrote in John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon, Kennedy was increasingly concerned about the program's cost. Some evidence suggests he was looking for a way to alter the challenge, perhaps by turning off the end-of-decade clock, but he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, so we'll never know what might have happened during the 1964 election campaign or in a second Kennedy term.

So WI Kennedy lives and his budgetary concerns result in him scaling back the space program after he wins re-election in 1964. What would the space race and NASA look like with significant cutbacks happening in the mid 60s and a public change in the timetable of the program?

I could see this resulting in a less hurried approach to the Soviet moon shot, which could conceivably result in the Soviets landing on the moon first (I tend to think that even with reduced funding, NASA has the advantage though).

I could have dramatic implications for the long-term culture of NASA, one might hope that it would result in less of an attitude of entitlement and more practical proposals from the agency for the post-Apollo period. I could also see less happy outcomes though.

What do other folks think?

fasquardon
 
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