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If They Couldn't Come Back from the Moon

''Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay to rest in peace," Nixon says to the camera. "For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world...

''Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay to rest in peace," Nixon says to the camera. "For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."

This was the plan. If the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who landed on the moon 43 years ago today, had found themselves on that chalky surface without enough oxygen or power, unable to reconnect with the command module orbiting above – if they were, in short, stranded, President Richard Nixon was prepared to inform the country that night on television.

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Before giving the speech, the President would have made telephone calls to the "widows to be" to offer condolences. After final goodbyes, and perhaps recommendations to the astronauts on how to close their lives, the plans called for Mission Control to "close down communications" with the Lunar Module. In a public ritual likened to burial at sea, clergyman would then have commended their souls to "the deepest of the deep"

The plan, which had been a secret for decades, originated with speechwriter William Safire, who had sent a memo to Nixon's chief of staff H. R. Haldeman in which he suggested a protocol the administration might follow in reaction to such an event. Safire himself had been urged to think of a course of action by a NASA astronaut, as he described in his memoir. "On June 13, Frank Borman—an astronaut the president liked and whom NASA had assigned to be our liaison—called me to say, 'You want to be thinking of some alternative posture for the president in the event of mishaps on Apollo XI.' When I didn't react promptly, Borman moved off the formal language—'like what to do for the widows.' "

NASA has never publicized astronaut contingency plans in the event of a "Major Tom"-like incident, and debate continues as to whether cyanide pills have been sent to space. Eisenhower had handwritten a speech in the event that D-day had been a failure. In 1986, after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, no speech was on hand for President Reagan to deliver in the stunned aftermath. His writer, Peggy Noonan, rose to the occasion with a speech that concluded, famously, with the words of the sonnet by James Gillespie Magee written in farewell to the courageous crew who ''slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.''

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Nixon's phone call to the moon

Safire's memo and his speech for Nixon were dusted off in 1996 by LA Times columnist Jim Mann, who discovered them in a file titled, "IN THE EVENT OF MOON DISASTER." "'These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, know there is no hope for their recovery,'' the President would have had to say. ''But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice… In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood."

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

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"A personal note," William Safire wrote in his Times column in 1999. "At historic moments, speechwriters turn to poets. The final line of the undelivered salute evoked the cadence of the patriotic poet Rupert Brooke, who died in the Royal Navy in World War I." The poem is "The Soldier".

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.

Few knew of the contingency plan. Millions of people around the world cheered on those pioneers, gathered around televisions around the world, in dorm rooms, in huts, near battle fields. Flags were waved; even in the throes of the technological pissing contest of the Cold War, everyone was on the same planet looking up. In America, that weekend, news of the moon landing in America was almost overshadowed by a tragedy that did, in fact, happen: the incident at Chappaquiddick.

Uncovered archives leads to useful speculation, counter-factuals, alternate histories that offer new angles on ossified narratives. Safire's secret speech isn't just a tribute to the bravery of these early astronauts, who were catapulted to another planetary body for the first time in history, for the glorious goal of saying we could. It's also a reminder of how risky those missions were, and how remarkable is the fact that they came back at all. Even in the face of uncertainty and dread and death, hope persists.

Neil Armstrong's goodnight from Apollo 11

Update: An animated short about the contingency plan, "Forever Mankind," by students at the University of Colorado:

Forever Mankind from CU Denver CAM on Vimeo.