Blunt Frank Borman told the Richard Nixon’s man he needed a back-up plan

It was Frank Borman’s warning to Richard Nixon’s speechwriter that led William Safire to quickly pen words his boss would never utter.

US president Richard Nixon. Picture: AP

Frank Borman was a direct man who spoke bluntly, which others often mistook for rudeness.

As NASA’s White House liaison officer he was in Washington with US president Richard Nixon at 9.30am on July 16, 1969, to see colleagues Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin shed the grip of Earth’s gravity and blast towards the moon.

Armstrong had been back-up for Borman on Apollo 8 and it was as Borman headed to the moon over Christmas in 1968 that Armstrong was told he would command Apollo 11, not that it was yet certain it would land on the lunar surface. There were many challenges to face before that.

The Apollo missions were dangerously rushed, high-risk affairs, but president John Kennedy had promised in his 1962 “we choose the moon” speech to get there before the decade was out and Nixon was not going to be the president who let his nation down.

Borman must have considered the celebratory mood in the Oval Office premature. He mentioned his concerns to Nixon’s brilliant speechwriter, William Safire. “You’ll want to consider an alternative posture for the president in the event of mishaps,” he warned him.

Safire didn’t know what Borman was suggesting. In typically abrupt style, Borman made himself clear: “Like what to do for the widows.”

He explained that the most dangerous manoeuvre would be taking off in the lunar landing module. It hadn’t been tested. How could it be? Borman estimated there was about a one-in-three chance it would fail.

A shocked Safire went home and on a manual typewriter, with no changes and no corrections, wrote seamlessly beautiful words on two sheets of paper, the headline over which read: In Event of Moon Disaster. It is the finest speech never delivered:

“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.”