NASA cuts off contact with Russian officials

[werepossum]

You drank the cool-aid.

Imperialistic fuck up #1 :
"In 1918 Ho lived in Paris. During the talks that led to the Treaty of Versailles, Ho tried to convince the American delegation to speak out for the cause of the Indo-Chinese people but he was not successful. "

Imperialistic fuck up #2 :
"In September 1945, Ho Chi Minh announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. However, France wanted to re-establish control over Vietnam. France refused to recognise Ho’s republic and both sides quickly engaged in fighting in 1946. "


Imperialistic fuck up #3 :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh

"Although he convinced Emperor Bảo Đại to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country. He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry S. Truman for support for Vietnamese independence,[31] citing the Atlantic Charter, but Truman never responded.[32]"


Ho Chi Minh is a hero in Vietnam. That's why they renamed Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City when it fell in 1975, 6 years after he died.

The story is really one of overcoming incredible odds to gain independence. It just isn't a perspective Americans are likely to entertain, after all the cool-aid says we don't subjugate we liberate...

Ho Chi Minh is a hero because the Communists won. You DO know the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was and is a Communist nation, right? Communism is antithetical to American sensibilities, being antithetical to freedom.

That is true about Redstone. When Von Braun had designed the Redstone rocket he had left the option of a 4th stage being added which would propel a small payload into orbit. However Eisenhower wanted the space program to be more non military and he didn't like the Redstone rocket since it was basically a military rocket putting the first satellite up. The Redstone rocket family where ballistic missiles and where military in origin. The Vanguard rocket was designed and built for non military purposes so it was more acceptable. However the Eisenhower administration rushed it forward when it really wasn't ready for launch.
The issue that I have always seen with US missile development in the 1950's is from what I can see a difference in focus between the Soviets and the USA in delivery of nuclear warheads. The US primary nuclear platform in the late 40's and 50's was the Strategic bomber, with the B-36 and B-52 to deliver nuclear weapons. Compared to missiles the bombers where more accurate and able to deliver more nuclear bombs and larger bombs. The first H-bombs where huge and weighed over 40,000 lb. The Soviets tried to catch up to the Americans on strategic bombers but released they couldn't so they switched to missiles to deliver nuclear warheads. This also had the intended the effect of giving them easy platforms for the space race. That issue I think was critical for the successes of the Soviets because by the time the US released their was a space race the Soviets already had a lot of missile development completed and had launch vehicles with greater payload. It wasn't until the launch of the First Saturn I that the US started to pull ahead on the ability to launch large payloads into space.

Good info and points, thanks.