We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle [Paperback]

Bill Kaysing (Author), Randy Reid (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 87 pages
• Publisher: Mokelumne Hill Pr (June 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787304875
• ISBN-13: 978-0787304874
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 11.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias > Mythology & Folklore

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 46 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars The Author Probably Belongs to the Flat Earth Society December 2, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

First, the presentation of the "book" (more like a pamphlet) doesn't do much for credibility. Looks like a publication from a lunatic fringe type group with limited funds. The "pictures" are a joke. He repeatedly asks "where are the STARS in this picture". With the poor quality, you can't even make out the astronauts fingers in some of the pictures.

Second, after "reading" through half of this rambling, uncoordinated series of disconnected questions, musings, and innuendos, it's pretty clear the author should not be taken seriously. I can't prove wether we went to the moon or not, just as Bill Kaysing can't prove we didn't. And if we didn't why haven't the Russians denounced the feat, and why haven't all those US citizens involved finally come forward (now that the USSR is kaput and there's no reason to maintain that superior position in space). Indeed, we are now partnering with the Russians on the ISS.

Finally, the author builds no case for his hoax premise. There is no attempt to build a cause and effect type analysis, which would lead to questions and/or conclusions that would (if not conclusively answered or proven) suport his hypothesis. In other words, this is far from a scientific treatise.

Save your money and don't get swindled by Bill Kaysing and his ramblings like I did.

77 of 107 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I would give it 0 stars if I could March 26, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This, simply speaking, is the most utterly ridiculous book ever written. I mourn the loss of the time I spent reading this.... thing. I will not even call this rambling snarl of images and text a book. That this man could shame the Apollo astronauts who went to the moon, the astronauts who gave their lives in the quest to get there, and the hundreds of thousands of Americans involved in sending us to the moon, is appalling.

To speak about the pseudo-scientific "evidence" that he presents is a waste of time. However, if this person's ideas have intrigued you, I will briefly refute three of the most popular ideas:

1) The flag is waving. We faked the Apollo program and shot it on a stage in Nevada.
The flag was stiffened with wire on the back to give it the apperance of waving, since there is no air on the Moon. Plans to do this can even be found in books written before we went to the Moon! Movies where the flag is actually waving only appear where the Apollo astronauts were struggling to stick the flag in the soil, and as a result, the thin wires vibrated.

2) There is no blast crater underneath the lunar module. We faked the Apollo program and shot it on a stage in Nevada.
There is no blast crater underneath the lunar module because, as can be found in countless books and websites, the lunar module's engine was shut down about five feet above the lunar surface. A long probe extended from the end of each footpad. When they touched the ground, the engine was shut down to prevent thrust from bouncing back from the surface and damaging the LM.

3) There are no stars in the pictures from the moon. We faked the Apollo program and shot it on a stage in Nevada.'
Have you ever tried to take a picture of a bright object and a dim one at the same time? The lunar cameras were designed to take pictures of the well-lit surface. The bright lunar surface and Earth washed out the stars. If you don't believe this, try to find stars on a moonlit night with snow cover or try to take a picture of a flashlight and a car headlight at the same time.

My favorite part of this book is when he says that while the astronauts were not on the Moon but in Las Vegas, they were visiting bars and the like. There is a full-page spread of an exotic dancer. No astronauts, just a dancer. Boy, I'm really convinced now!

Please, don't, don't, DON'T get this book. There are better things to do with your life, like planting hyacinths, re-inventing the law of gravity, or painting pictures of your relatives.

69 of 96 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Yes, he's serious November 30, 2001

By J. P Snedeker

Format:Paperback

Bill Kaysing is the grandmaster of the moon hoax game. For the uninitiated, Kaysing and a happy band of "investigative journalists" believe that NASA faked all of the moon missions for one reason or another.

Ironically, this book began as a satire of the moon hoax theory. Kaysing was contracted to write an outlandish tome that would make fun of the theory, showing how ridiculous it is. But, the story goes, as he researched his quarry, he became convinced that NASA had indeed defrauded everybody and that the astronauts never got farther from earth than an airplane.

I won't go into Kaysing's "proof" of all this, because there is none. His creativity, however, can be amusing. Kaysing writes that while we thought we were watching moon walkers bound along the moon's surface 250,000 miles from earth, they were actually getting down in Las Vegas girlie bars. His evidence? He has a full-page spread of an exotic dancer. Of course, we don't see any astronauts, but the dancer sure is nice to look at.

Then there are the personal schedules. Kaysing gives us what he believes were the astronauts' activities on earth during the moon flights. One of my favorites is the "Guilt Therapy" sessions, obviously for whomever was suffering pangs from defrauding us all. Did these schedules come on official NASA letterhead? Were they developed by government officials? No, they came straight from Kaysing's imagination--but what the heck.

Bill gets ugly with his original editor. He reprints a letter from the woman where she tells him that his manuscript just isn't written very well, and therefore she cannot publish it. I guess Bill never received a rejection letter before, because he concludes that this is proof she is in cahoots with NASA to suppress his efforts to expose the truth.

It's tempting to say that this is so bad that it's good, but I can't, because there are people who actually believe this moon hoax garbage, and revere Kaysing for starting the whole thing. What is most annoying is the attitude of these folks. Their ignorance of basic logic, critical thinking and scientific concepts is outweighed only by their arrogance: they do not put forth their ideas as mere theory, but as fact. And when challenged, they respond with "NASA made that up," or "that cannot be proven," "the photos were faked" or "how do you know--were you there?" All the while, forgetting that they have never furnished one bit of creditable evidence. All they do is make up claims, and then put them forth as fact. (Kaysing once said that he knew a geologist who said the moon rocks actually came from earth. His friend's name? Credentials? Proof? Funny--that's not in the interview.)

This book was once the subject of an article in the Weekly World News--you know, the paper that features articles such as "Clinton catches Hillary in bed with space alien!" Kaysing applauded the News for their work on his behalf. Enough said.