Soviets get man on moon first

1954 - It's a squeaker, but William Proxmire pulls it off in the end, defeating incumbent Walter J. Kohler to become Governor of Wisconsin.

April 1960 - Governor Proxmire, who has remained a popular figure despite / because of his outspoken liberal views, campaigns on behalf of Senator Kennedy in the Wisconsin primary.

July 1960 - Nominee Kennedy offers Proxmire the Vice-Presidential nomination, balancing the ticket with a Midwesterner with executive experience.

November 1960 - The Kennedy/Proxmire ticket wins with 286 votes to the Republican 232.

December 1960 - Richard Paul Pavlick, a 73-year-old retired postal worker, rams the President-elect with his car as he leaves his Palm Beach home. The car - which was wired with dynamite - explodes, killing Kennedy as well as his wife and child, who were just inside the building.

January 1961 - In a muted ceremony, William Proxmire is sworn in as the 35th President of the United States. During his administration, Proxmire will institute the Second New Deal, a far-reaching package of social programs and modifications to the tax system. The Second New Deal was also funded by cutting what Proxmire called "Golden Fleece" programs - supersonic jet research, various military and scientific research projects, space exploration (which Proxmire found particularly useless, personally ensuring massive reduction in funding), and "wasteful foreign adventures" such as American involvement in Vietnam.
 
January 1961 - In a muted ceremony, William Proxmire is sworn in as the 35th President of the United States. During his administration, Proxmire will institute the Second New Deal, a far-reaching package of social programs and modifications to the tax system. The Second New Deal was also funded by cutting what Proxmire called "Golden Fleece" programs - supersonic jet research, various military and scientific research projects, space exploration (which Proxmire found particularly useless, personally ensuring massive reduction in funding), and "wasteful foreign adventures" such as American involvement in Vietnam.

The difficulty here is Congress. I always point out that Congressional approval of NASA budget requests cuts both ways--on the one hand, they don't generally want to spend large sums of money on the program, so grandiose Presidential ideas, like SEI or VSE will usually fail. On the other, they do like the program enough (especially if from Florida, Mississippi, or Texas, nowadays) that they aren't willing to completely eliminate human spaceflight, instead preserving at least a Shuttle or commercial crew.

This is magnified under then-current conditions by the Soviets aiming for "firsts" and prestigious flights, causing many Congressional delegates and members of the general public to want a more vigorous space program to show that we were better than the Soviets. This desire is further magnified by the fact that high-technology is pretty nearly America's hat; it really, really wouldn't do to be stood up by the Soviets in a highly visible high-technology field like spaceflight.

So, in summary, Proxmire is going to have to fight every step of the way for NASA's budget to be cut (especially once Gagarin flies in April). Since he's going to have to fight every step of the way for the defense cuts he wants in your scenario as well, I'd say he'd give up on NASA, since at least it's cheaper and provides a non-violent mode of competition. He won't necessarily do a Moon program--they might instead stick with the Eisenhower plan of doing an Apollo 8-type mission by 1970, with landings later--but he isn't going to kill the space program.
 
All true! The Proxmire presidency is going to be a tough one (and in-and-of itself an interesting TL!). A lot of people aren't going to like pulling back in Vietnam, which he has more control over. I don't know that he'd be able to absolutely kill the space program, as you say, but I think having someone who speaks out against it as a waste of money that could be helping Americans, as opposed to someone like Kennedy inspiring people with the topic, and who is going to fight tooth and nail to reduce the budget is going to make a pretty big impact. It could push the moon landing back some years. And he might rather give up on killing the military research rather than space, since that might be a sop to the hawks, who are more impressed with jets than spaceships and are hopping mad over Vietnam.
 
Here's what Race Into Space says will happen (victory in 1960--yes, I was cheating like a mofo):

A glorious victory! The USSR proves to the world the superiority of the communist system. Marxism spreads like wildfire! Several western countries adapt their governments to socialist models and forge economic ties with the Soviets. The USSR believes it can win Europe economically. Major wars occur in the Mideast in 1968 and in Korea in 1970. The United States has a disastrous foreign policy. America increases its conventional forces in readiness for for Communist expansion. You are promoted to the Politburo and your name is being linked with [Khrushchev]* as heir apparent. Beware of your enemies!

* The original says Brezhnev, but that would be just silly in 1960, don't you think?

There are different ones depending on when you succeed, relative to the 1970 goal the game implicitly sets--the Major Victory, as above (very early), the Minor Victory (just in time), and the Near-Loss (late!). There is also probably a loss screen for when you haven't done it by 1978...
 

Commissar

Banned
Also capturing and being able to loot ALL of Germany will give them a considerable advantage in the development of a number of rocket variants... especially if Von Braun can be convinced to play along as well

Another fucking myth. The Soviets had German Rocket Scientists and they were utterly hopeless.
 
Yeah. The Russians got SOME German scientists, but all the best ones, plus many of the others who were able to do so surrendered to the Americans.

The Russians had their German rocketeers run through the process of building and launching a V2, all the while watching and taking notes. While the Germans gave them a couple of ideas, it's clear the Russians didn't really need them.
 
President Proxmire (or Nixon) would not have to cut way back on NASA to delay a moon landing. He simply does not announce Kennedy's goal of the moon by the end of the decade.

There is no reason you can't have a space race with the moon as more of an indefinite goal.
 
President Proxmire (or Nixon) would not have to cut way back on NASA to delay a moon landing. He simply does not announce Kennedy's goal of the moon by the end of the decade.

There is no reason you can't have a space race with the moon as more of an indefinite goal.

I think it would still significantly delay a Lunar Landing into the Mid 1970's. As it was, NASA funding would have been at about one percent (0.9%) of the budget when he entered office in 1961 as has been proposed here. He would never have allowed it to increase to the four and a half percent (4.41%) of the federal budget it did during the high water mark of development for the Apollo Program. He likely would try and keep the budget down to (1.5%) and keep it constant there until he left office.
 
In the mid-seventies, you had the joint Apollo-Soyuz missions. You might have a US-Soviet joint effort for a moon landing around 1976.
 
In the mid-seventies, you had the joint Apollo-Soyuz missions. You might have a US-Soviet joint effort for a moon landing around 1976.

JFK himself was contemplating using that option in the early 1960s. Have Kennedy live, and this is a viable option.
 
Actually, would this result in the Air Force still having their Manned Space Program? I know that MacNamara was the one who was behind killing the X-20 Dyna-Soar, so with him out of the Administration, that program is likely to continue. At the same time, while the Military may face some budget cuts, they likely are not going to be involved in Vietnam, so that actually have more money then they would otherwise. Blue Gemini could also go forward if the Air Force gave enough financial incentive to NASA, given the difficulty of raising the budget during the Proxmire era, if the X-20 still doesn't work out.
 
The Russians had their German rocketeers run through the process of building and launching a V2, all the while watching and taking notes. While the Germans gave them a couple of ideas, it's clear the Russians didn't really need them.

Yes. The Russians were (and are, for the most part) very, very good engineers. Crippled by poor manufacturing processes, granted, but nonetheless very good designers.
 
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