Seeing what happened to the materials on the moon is important, but not the most important part. Seeing that we can go to the moon at will is most impressive to others even if we take it as a trivial matter. Of course we can do it whenever we want and we have a very casual attitude about it. Those countries that cannot do it at all see this and forever have that sense of 'Just damn!'.
This obsession about the opinions of others is America's worst trait. The fact is, the information that can be learned about the long term effects of materials in space supersedes international opinion.