Land men on the moon and return them safely to earth by the endof the decade.This was the "public" goal declared by president Kennedy.However the underlying secret goal was to demonstrate whichcountry could throw the largest hydrogen bomb possible the farthestdistance and hit a target accurately - without having to actuallythrow a real hydrogen bomb (and risk starting a war). By gettingmen to the moon we proved we could deliver any possible hydrogenbomb anywhere we wanted to put it on earth.