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[i]Tom Paine, the third administrator of NASA, brought to the agency an abiding belief that the Soviet Union and the United States eventually would have to consider working together, abandoning the competitive nature of space flight. His beliefs concerning the necessity for closer working relationships between the two superpowers went back many years. When he returned to college after World War II, "learning the Russian language was one of the two fields [he] selected for its long-range implications (the other was nuclear energy)." As he studied the future of manned space flight and other aspects of man's investigations of the cosmos, Paine became convinced "that the conquest of space [was] a job of such enormity that a new partnership of major nations should be organized with the US/USSR leaders demonstrating the way. ...thus, throughout his time with NASA, Paine tried to tone down the competitive aspects of Soviet-American space relations. He concentrated on developing a rapprochement with the Soviets that might spread into other parts of society. He also believed that elimination of the "Russian threat" rationale would force NASA to develop a space program based upon new foundations.[/i]
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