The Virtues of Boldness<br >Looking back (Americans do a lot of that these days because it<br >seems pleasanter than contemplating the future)， a fascinating as-<br >pect of the public s reaction a decade ago was that so many people<br >considered Apollo l 7 the end of something， not the beginning of<br >something.<br > The moon landing helped to frame the 1960s. At the beginning<br >of the decade， John Kennedy said we would do it by the end of the<br >decade. And we did. It was like Babe Ruth s "called shot" in the<br >World Series. America audaciously pointed to the right-field<br >bleachers and then hit the ball to the spot.<br > When the words "The Eagle has landed" crackled back to earth<br >ten years ago， a challenge was met. It began on October 4， 1957，<br >when a 184-pound sphere of Soviet technology orbited the earth.<br >One of President Eisenhower s advisers suggested that as a show of<br >national strength， Sputnik was less impressive than a U.S. super-<br >markm display in Zagreb. The junior senator from Massachusetts<br > 4isagreed. John Kennedy s strongest beliefs were about the dy-<br > As Eisenhower s term ended， he pruned the space program that<br > was pointing， tentatively， toward the moon. Daniel Boorstin， the<br > historian， believes Eisenhower was moved， in part， by his "Cincin-<br > natus complex." He was "haunted by his military background"<br > and determined to keep America "civilian-oriented." In his fare-<br > well address he warned against "the military-industrial complex."<br > It is odd that Ike from Abilene supplied perhaps the most-used<br > phrase of the 1960s radicalism. It is odder still that in another<br > passage he anticipated the growth of anxiety about a "scientific<br > technological elite."<br >Q<br ><br >