--Lou Dobbs

When I think of the first manned lunar landing, my mind's eye has the image of the lunar lander, moon dust piled against its legs, sitting on the moon's surface. And I see the plaque fastened to it, which reads, "We Came in Peace for All Mankind."

It almost did not read that way.

I was sitting in my office one day early in 1969 when NASA Administrator Tom Paine rushed into the room. "Peter Flanigan called from the White House," he said. "Do you have a plan ready for the President?"

We had done a great deal of work in planning what would occur when the Apollo 11 astronauts were on the lunar surface and some thought of what President Nixon's involvement might be, but the final White House segment had not been committed to paper.

"We have to be at the White House at 2 p.m.," Paine said.

A secretary rushed to a local stationery store in downtown Washington and purchased three fake leather bindings and dividers. She had "President Nixon, Apollo 11 Participation" embossed on the cover. I quickly knocked out an index and we began assembling the data needed to fill in the sections: a missiondescription, a time-line of events the White House might use, a sample scriptof a telephone conversation from the Oval Office to the crew on the lunarsurface, a photo of the plaque we would leave on the lunar surface, etc.

Time was short. Typewriters were busy. We quickly filled in the pages but we ran out of time.

NASA's government limousine was a black Checker cab, a boxy un-limo looking vehicle. Paine and I piled in, carrying sheets of paper and the newly purchased binders.

As the auto sped down the streets from NASA Headquarters in the Southeast of Washington to the White House, Paine and I pushed the taxi's jump seats against the front seat, and collated our notebooks on the floor of the vehicle as we got closer and closer to the White House.

Not wanting to appear unprepared, we walked into Flanigan's office and almost casually tossed two notebooks on his desks. Clearly, we made an impression; NASA had been prepared for this day for a long while. Flanigan, a former New York investment banker, was a hard-nosed guy on Nixon's staff and one known for his high energy level and efficiency.

We did not see the President that day but Flanigan called a few days later. The President had made a few notes, he said, and he would send the margin notes to us. There was one thing the President wanted changed -- the plaque to be left on the lunar surface, which read "We Came in Peace for All Mankind." That was strange. I was certain the White House had already seen one version of theplaque.

The President wanted "Under God" inserted after the word "Peace".

"Peter," I said, "there is no universal god. We do not want to offend any religion..."

"Julian," he said, "the President was insistent."

I did not want to admit that the plaque had already been made and affixed to the lunar landing module. It had been through a whole series of pre-flight tests at Houston.

We had begun in April to consider what to do on the lunar surface and what might be left behind. The wording on the plaque had had a lot of attention. Willis Shapely, who headed our study committee, had conferred with the Librarian of Congress, the Archivist of the United States, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Space Council, congressional committee staffs, and others. (The decision to plant an American flag, incidentally, came after much discussion because we did not want to create the impression that the U.S. claimed the moon. We feared the charge that the United States was attempting to establish sovereignty.)

I protested again.

"Julian, that's what it is going to be."

"Peter..."

"Dammit, Julian, the President wants that change. The president is big on God."

"What?"

"Julian, Billy Graham is here nearly every Sunday. The President wants 'God' on the plaque!"

There was nothing left to do but say "yes."

It occurred to me that in the rush of events, no one would remember. That worked out. The plaque that has been resting on the Sea of Tranquility for 30 years is the original, without the benefit of President Nixon's editing.

Julian Scheer was Assistant Administrator of NASA for Public Affairs from 1962-1971, including the first five lunar landings. This article was written expressly for space.com.