Taken from the interviews and historical accounts contributing to the RED FILES, read through the quotes and notable excerpts presented below.

Dr. Robert Seamans, NASA administrator
It wasn't sophistication of technology; it was sophistication in getting tremendous mileage out of equipment that we would not even have used ourselves.

We were trying to beat them, to beat the Soviets and we were doing this in an indiscriminate sort of way.

Sergei Khrushchev, Historian
In my first year in the university, when President Eisenhower was elected, this was a clear signal that Americans elected a general as the president, because they decided to begin the war against the Soviet Union. It was not in newspapers. It was in our hearts, and all the people were very scared.

My father wanted to beat the Americans in all spheres of life and to prove that our Socialist system is working better. He wanted to prove that our economy was more effective than American economy.

When we talk about space research and military, they worked in parallel. In the Soviet military, designers had deep feelings about military usage of space.

Vassily Mishin, Soviet missile designer
Later, when we were sent to Germany to study this rocket technology, we were struck by the state of development of this technology in Germany at the end of the war.

It was absolutely clear to us at that time that the creation of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles was vitally important for assuring -- well, defence capability of the Soviet Union. And that inspired us, gave us enthusiasm for the creation of such a rocket.

The launch of the first artificial satellite was initially accepted as not an historical event, but as a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.

After the global public expressed its opinion about the role of having launched the first satellite in the Soviet Union, our leadership understood that this launch should be widely used for propaganda purposes.