"Paul Levinson - Loose Ends 02 - Little Differences" - читать интересную книгу автора (Levinson Paul)

1969 speech in Congress, to be delivered just a few months after Apollo 11. He'd gone over it and the
entire Congressional record leading to the Challenger very carefully before he'd leftтАФthat was, what,
almost six years ago, before he'd come here from 2084 in the Thorne? Seemed like more than a lifetime.
But he could hear the screen with Mondale's words as if they were right in front of him now. The Senator
from Minnesota had been talking about the NASA proposal to go to Mars in the 1980s. I believe it
would be unconscionable, Mondale had said in that deadening twang of his, to embark on a project of
such staggering cost when many of our citizens are malnourished, when our rivers and lakes are
polluted and when our cities and rural areas are dying. RightтАФbut the only thing that had died had
been human exploration of space, its home beyond Earth. And Mondale, for all his talk, was just a
senator then. Nixon as President had been the one.

All Jeff trusted himself to say to Sam was, тАЬI think Nixon's going to surprise you about what he'll doтАФin
Vietnam as well as in space.тАЭ

тАЬOh, I have no illusions at all about Nixon and Vietnam,тАЭ Sam said. тАЬHe says he has a plan to end the
WarтАФI'll believe it when I see it. We'll be lucky if we're out of there by the time the next Presidential
election rolls around. But on space ... look, tell you what. A friend of mine at Georgetown told me Nixon
already has plans to set up a taskgroup, as soon as he assumes office, to map out the path for the space
program post-Apollo. Surely that shows a commitment to space?тАЭ

тАЬYou're missing the point, Sam: post-Apollo. Why not continue it? Why not get some manned missions
going to Mars?тАЭ

тАЬSo maybe he's just looking for a new name,тАЭ Sam replied, тАЬso he can distance the program from
Kennedy, because missions to Mars deserve their own Greek god. Look, I'm going down to Washington
for an association conference next month. Why don't you tag along? I could introduce you to my friend.тАЭ

The conversation at the other table was heating up.

тАЬThe Greeks haven't done anything in two thousand years,тАЭ one of the kids was saying. тАЬEven politically,
you people are the weakest country in Western Europe today.тАЭ

тАЬPapadopoulos can change that,тАЭ someone with a Greek accent replied. тАЬHe's a great manтАФfor Greece
and the world.тАЭ

The first student guffawed. тАЬPapadopoulos is a jackassтАФanother dictator with delusions of grandeur.тАЭ

Another voice with a Greek accent spoke up. тАЬThe Spiro AgnewтАФhe's the greatest Greek in the world
today!тАЭ

A strange feeling went through JeffтАФone which he'd been trying to suppress, ignore, for the past few
months. But it was getting harder to give it no for an answer.

The new Vice President was known in the future for his advocacy of the space programтАФhis almost
lone-voice advocacy in the Nixon Administration. Agnew would be Chair of Nixon's Space Task Group.
The one that would propose NASA missions to Mars for the 1980s. The proposals that Mondale would
ridicule and Nixon would kick aside in favor of the undernourishedтАФunconscionably
underfundedтАФShuttle.

But what if Agnew were in a position not only to propose, but to start implementing NASA's schedule