The things America could have done if they hadn’t killed JFK and brought in President Johnson who got us into the Vietnam War and the ‘Civil Rights Welfare to Enslave Blacks Act’.
He really wasn't interested in space, but he saw this as a way to boost his credibility with the anti-Communists. He wouldn't need it after '64, and, if he hadn't spiked it by '67, would have easily killed it after the Apollo 1 fire.
But since he died, the program was completed to fulfill his legacy.