"Apparently a substantial number of Americans do not believe that their government landed men on the moon", says David Wise in "The Politics of Lying", 1973. On June 14, 1970, the Knight newspapers published an astonishing story based on interviews with 1,721 persons in six cities. The people interviewed were asked whether they really believed that U.S. astronauts had been to the moon and back. The article emphasized that no attempt had been made to reach a cross section of the population. Nevertheless, the interviews did indicate that a substantial number of Americans do not believe the single most publicized action ever taken by their government in peacetime. When the skeptics were asked why such an enormous hoax would be perpetrated, they generally replied either that the government had done it to fool the Russians and Chinese, or that it had been done to justify the great cost of the space program. A few thought the government had a bread-and-circuses motive to make the people forget their troubles.
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