Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership

Book excerpt: In Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership, ten contributors present compelling arguments and analyses that shed new light on the power and leadership of the nation's presidency and on the space program. Setting the tone for the collection, Roger Launius and Howard McCurdy maintain that the nation's presidency had become imperial by the mid-1970s and that supporters of the space program had grown to find relief in such a presidency, which they believed could help them obtain greater political support and funding. Subsequent chapters explore the roles and political leadership, vis-a-vis government policy, of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush.