The environment in 1965 was completely different. It really would not have been easy to say we will not get to the moon in 1965, because there were strong suspi

The environment in 1965 was completely different. It really would not have been easy to say we will not get to the moon in 1965, because there were strong suspicions that the Russians were already there. (And if they weren't, there were even stronger suspicions that they soon would be.) If you lived through the cold war, I'm probably triggering those memories for you right now. It was very much a time when the thinking was that it had to be done. (Right or wrong, that was the thinking, and those were the suspicions that existed.) Besides, in 1965 Block 1 Apollo CSM was already built and being fitted for AS-201. (Apollo 1-A)