The China-US Space Race Is a Myth

The politics of fear sells. In his successful 1960 campaign for president, then Senator John F. Kennedy seized on the dangers of the missile gap - a presumed Soviet superiority in the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Kennedy exploited anxiety all the way to the White House. Yet the missile gap was a myth . Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara admitted as much to Kennedy in 1962, claiming "emotionally guided but nonetheless patriotic individuals in the Pentagon" were responsible. McNamara then warned Kennedy, "There are still people of that kind in the Pentagon. I wouldn't give them any foundation…