That was not what I was implying at all. I was simply drawing a parrallel between then and now....how gov't. involvement (read $$$$) comes about due to falsehoods.
Sometimes, the right thing is done for a the wrong reason. Kennedy only wanted to get to the moon as a political achievement. He wasn’t interested otherwise.
However, many, if not all, of us benefitted and still benefit by the push of math and science in the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s.
Let me add that I’m not justifying the falsehoods.
However, there was a legitimate arms race going on at the time. Yes, it might have been overblown at the beginning, but as time went on, the USSR did surpass us in terms of numbers with their weaponry. Had the US decided not to act at that time, we would be looking at a much different 1980’s than we had.