>> in may, 1961, jfk announces to the world an extraordinarily ambitious project. >> now it is time to take longer strides, time for a great new american enterprise. >> the soviets have already put the first man into space, and after the bay of pigs fiasco, jack cannot afford for america to be left behind. >> the united states was engaged in a space race with the russian. we weren't trying to just beat the soviets militarily. we were trying to beat them to new frontiers. >> this is the kennedy approach to life which is win at all the costs. it is not good enough to come in second. and that was what they were told by their father from the time they were little children. >> as jack projects the superiority of his country around the world, back at home a desperate struggle for civil rights is tearing america apart. >> if you're african-american in the united states in the '60s, you're not living in a democracy. you're living under an apartheid