Most Americans felt a great sense of national pride on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon. But, the fallout from that moment around the World was hard for most Stateside people to comprehend. We were living in Laos at the time of the walk. Most of our news came from Armed Forces Network on the AM radios we had. We had no TV set.
A Chinese banker invited several of us to his spacious home in Vientiane to watch the Moon Walk on TV - picked up from a station in Thailand. It was a mixed group of Americans, Lao citizens, and foreign business people. You would have thought it was a Super Bowl victory party. When Neil took that first step on the Moon, the cheers were deafening. When the astronauts starting hopping around in that Moon-bounce walk, the place was in an uproar. People were congratulating all the Americans in the room for the great accomplishments. America's stock overseas, in many places other than Laos, went up immediately.
The most telling evidence of the impact of the Moon Walk came the next day at the tennis courts. A Chinese man in his 60's was teaching me to play tennis. As soon as he walked onto the court, he began to hop around - Moon fashion - grinning from ear to ear. No words were necessary. The afterglow of the U.S. moon landing was seen for a long time. Aside from any scientific benefit, the PR value of that landing can not be overestimated. In a land where we and our Lao friends were involved in a life and death struggle with Communism, America had beaten the Soviet Union to the Moon, and all the World watched.
By the way, the Chinese man's tennis advice was simple. Forget about how strong you are. Get your first serve in and then hit the ball deep, at any speed. With some modifications, that simple strategy helped me win a lot of tennis matches in the decades that followed.
Richard Rhodes
11/26/96