DURHAM, N.C. -- President John F. Kennedy's determination to put a man on the moon was a response to the Cold War that had little scientific merit, and the nation's determination to cling to manned space flight after his death is the "curse of the Apollo space program," says a Duke University history professor and former NASA historian.

"One of the things we hear all the time -- we're hearing it again because the space program has lost its compass -- is that we need John Kennedy's commitment to land men on the moon," says Duke's Alex Roland, who studies military history and the history of technology and is a critic of the shuttle program.

"People say, 'If we only had that great vision and leadership, then our space program would have direction and purpose and public support,'" Roland notes. "But he did something that was very specific in time and place -- it was an artifact of the Cold War. It was not a model for how to run a space program."

Kennedy's purpose was political, both for domestic and international goals. He needed a dramatic demonstration of the scientific and technical superiority of Western, democratic free-enterprise capitalism at a time when the Soviet Union had put the first satellite -- and then the first human -- in space, Roland says.

"So the Apollo program was, in my opinion, worth the $25 billion, but not for any goal of space science or exploration; it was worthwhile because it achieved our political objectives."

Roland says the Russians had given up the space race by about 1966, and that Kennedy, had he lived, might have changed the dramatic deadline of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. But JFK's assassination kept the momentum for the space program going.

"Lyndon Johnson wasn't about to touch that sacred cow," he says.

As a result, space enthusiasts have insisted that NASA's activities be built around a manned mission to Mars, which would be as historic and significant as the Apollo mission. "But there isn't a space race anymore," Roland says.

Roland can be reached for further comment at (919) 684-2758 or by email.