SERIOUSLY, what did he mean by this?

he meant the space program provided a 10x return on the money invested in it because it revealed how overblown the Soviet threat was so he take all of that money he would have spent on military shit and spend it on dem programs instead which are more beneficial to the amerifat people

>>1972636
Doesn't this imply that Russians mainly rely on psychological warfare than anything tangible?

>>1972622
missile gap was a meme
Kennedy got elected on a Trump-tier argument

>>1972643
Well, the whole cold war was a big dick measuring contest. The Soviet Union bluffed their way through it though.

>>1972652
During Cuban Missile Crisis - absolutely. Later on NATO had to reasses all of their strategies once they realised that they will lose a conventional war in Europe.

>>1972643
well the rockets the Soviets used to parade around were made out of wood...

but really the Soviets were recognized as a legit threat because they threw their entire economy around building tanks and making steel

Kennedy and his autismo Cold War attitude made everyone freak out about the Missile "Gap".

Nikki played into it, made us spend a shit ton of money building a global missile shield. We spent like mad trying to get into space as quickly as possible. We spent like mad trying to fight wars in a dozen countries.

And then, even after we collectively realized we were already beating the Soviets, the Cold Warrior fears remained embedded in people, so we ended up with Reagan trying to build up the already-largest military and even Obama went around trying to build more shield defenses inexplicably.

Had everyone just chilled the fuck out and let LBJ slink out of Vietnam, let him work on the Great Society we objectively would be in a better position today.

>>1972676
How much of this was the President's being autists and how much of this was hidden interest by security services?

>>1972645
This

>>1972780

Kennedy's missile gap was all him. Like the other poster said, it was a Trump tier lie. Nixon wasn't even ready for such cheap fear-mongoring (part of the reason he began to use so many dirty tactics himself).

Once into office, the intelligence and military were more than happy to pander to his nonsense.

>>1972676
>X made Johnson initiate a surge and kill all those civilians

Fuck off apologist, he was the Hilliary of his time

>>1972622

You know how in Civilization they have a quote whenever you unlock a new tech? That would be the PERFECT quote for unlocking satellites.