Dwight D. Eisenhower

==== Space Race ====
{{Further|Space Race}}
[[File:1974S Eisenhower Reverse.jpg|thumb|In the 1970s the reverse of the [[Eisenhower dollar]] celebrated America's Moon landings, which began 11 years after NASA was created during Eisenhower's presidency]]
Eisenhower and the CIA had known since at least January 1957, nine months before [[Sputnik 1|''Sputnik'']], that Russia had the capability to launch a small payload into orbit and was likely to do so within a year.<ref>John M. Logsdon, "Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program" (NASA; 1995)</ref>

Eisenhower's support of the nation's fledgling [[United States space program|space program]] was officially modest until the Soviet launch of [[Sputnik]] in 1957, gaining the Cold War enemy enormous prestige. He then launched a national campaign that funded not just space exploration but a major strengthening of science and higher education. The Eisenhower administration determined to adopt a non-aggressive policy that would allow "space-crafts of any state to overfly all states, a region free of military posturing and launch Earth satellites to explore space".<ref>Logsdon, John M., and Lear, Linda J. Exploring the Unknown:Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program/ Washington D.C.</ref> His [[Treaty on Open Skies|Open Skies]] Policy attempted to legitimize illegal [[Lockheed U-2]] flyovers and [[Project Genetrix]] while paving the way for spy satellite technology to orbit over sovereign territory,<ref>W. D. Kay, Defining NASA The Historical Debate Over the Agency's Mission, 2005.</ref> but [[Nikolai Bulganin]] and [[Nikita Khrushchev]] declined Eisenhower's proposal at the Geneva conference in July 1955.<ref>Parmet, Herbert S. Eisenhower and the American Crusades (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972)</ref> In response to Sputnik being launched in October 1957, Eisenhower created [[NASA]] as a civilian space agency in October 1958, signed a landmark science education law, and improved relations with American scientists.<ref>Yankek Mieczkowski, ''Eisenhower's Sputnik Moment: The Race for Space and World Prestige'' (Cornell University Press; 2013)</ref>

Fear spread through the United States that the Soviet Union would invade and spread [[communism]], so Eisenhower wanted to not only create a [[Reconnaissance satellite|surveillance satellite]] to detect any threats but [[ballistic missile]]s that would protect the United States. In strategic terms, it was Eisenhower who devised the American basic strategy of [[Deterrence theory|nuclear deterrence]] based upon the [[Nuclear triad|triad]] of [[strategic bomber]]s, land-based [[intercontinental ballistic missile]]s (ICBMs), and [[submarine-launched ballistic missile]]s (SLBMs).<ref>Peter J. Roman, ''Eisenhower and the Missile Gap'' (1996)</ref>

NASA planners projected that [[human spaceflight]] would pull the United States ahead in the Space Race; however, in 1960, an Ad Hoc Panel on Man-in-Space concluded that "man-in-space can not be justified" and was too costly.<ref>The Presidents's Science Advisory Committee, "Report of the Ad Hoc Panel on Man-in-Space" December 16, 1960. NASA Historical Collection</ref> Eisenhower later resented the space program and its gargantuan price tag—he was quoted as saying, "Anyone who would spend $40 billion in a race to the moon for national prestige is nuts."<ref>Greg Ward, "A Rough Guide History of the USA" (Penguin Group: London, 2003)</ref>