In 1961 Yuri Gagarin went to space, but more importantly he didn’t visit the United States immediately after. John F. Kennedy personally barred him from entering, scared of his popularity—so the Telegraph, Wikipedia, and countless blogs say. It has all the makings of a classic Cold War conspiracy theory: John F. Kennedy, fear of the Soviet Union, and the Space Race. There’s just one problem: it isn’t true. Yet while the evidence refutes this Cold War truism, it explains why the story was easily accepted. This myth says much more about the nature of the United States during the Red Scare than it does about Yuri Gagarin.
Steve Ewin explains.
Yuri Gagarin in Warsaw, Poland in 1961.
There are two main versions of the Gagarin Myth. The first, as stated in Britain’s Telegraph, is that John F. Kennedy was so alarmed by Gagarin’s popularity that he barred him from the United States. The second, as an extension of the first, is that Kennedy’s method of barring was via Executive Order.
The second version is the easiest to disprove: no executive order or proclamation exists that barred Gagarin from the United States.(1) The only references to Gagarin by Kennedy as official actions of the United States are those of congratulatory messages for his achievement.
Expanding this to other offices of the executive branch also produces no evidence. The agency responsible for enforcing bans on specific individuals fell to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Thousands of pages exist regarding Charlie Chaplin, barred from entering the United States in 1952.(2) Further, the United States Customs and Immigration Service (the INS’ successor agency) has thousands of pages of documents related to John Lennon’s attempted barring.(3) In response to a FOIA request for records related to Gagarin, none were found. The stories of Chaplin and Lennon, however, are inseparable from the Red Scare and Cold War politics.
The politics of it all
The Red Scare is what makes the first version of this myth seem plausible. In 1952 the United States Congress passed, and President Eisenhower signed, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. This act effectively barred any Soviet citizen from entry to the United States. A win trumpeted by American Cold Warriors, it quickly became a disaster for the United States abroad. A National Security Council report dated March 25 1955 states that the general travel restriction:
…placed [the US] in a paradoxical position, which is being exploited by Communist propaganda. Despite its traditional policy favoring freedom of travel and its record of having favored a liberal exchange of persons…the U.S. is being accused of maintaining an “Iron Curtain”; and these accusations are being made not only by representatives of international Communism but also by otherwise friendly persons in the free world.(4)
These restrictions were still in place during Gagarin’s goodwill tour post-space. Kennedy would not have needed a reason to personally bar Gagarin from the United States after his historic 1961 flight. He would not have been allowed in the United States by default.
There was a way around this. The Immigration Act of 1952 provided exemptions for official and diplomatic business. As the United States and the Soviet Union maintained diplomatic ties, an exemption was built into the act which allowed for members of “deportable” affiliations to be in the United States if on official business from their home governments. If Gagarin was invited to the United States as an official representative of the Soviet Union (or sent by the Soviet Union as one), the Immigration Act of 1952 would have allowed it. In the immediate aftermath of Gagarin’s flight such an invitation was recommended by the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union.(5)
Official discouragement
The timing of Gagarin’s flight was not opportune for an invitation. Five days after Gagarin’s triumphant flight the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion occurred. The American-backed attempted invasion of a major Soviet ally greatly damaged American prestige. Yet, by the time Gagarin was on a good-will tour, America had an answer. Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961. According to John Logsdon’s award winning book, John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon, worldwide reaction to Shepard’s flight was more favourable than Gagarin’s. According to a May 1961 report of the U.S. Information Agency, the United States was already winning the propaganda battle of space flights.(6)
A June 1961 State Department telegram is a not-quite-smoking gun. The formerly classified document states that “no invitation for Gagarin to visit [the] US” had been made. Further, it states that the United States government “has made efforts to discourage invitation.”(7) This is the closest document which exists to suggest that Gagarin was banned from the United States: a discouragement. With the United States riding the wave of international support brought by Shepard’s flight, there was nothing to fear about Gagarin. Within a year, however, this discouragement would be moot.
Kennedy himself lifted the general travel restrictions in 1962. This decision was made upon recommendation by Secretary of State Dean Rusk and in consultation with the Central Intelligence Agency.(8) In April 1962, White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger wrote a memorandum stating that Gagarin was expected to be in Washington, DC that summer.(9) On July 6, 1962, the United States informed the Soviet Ambassador to the United States that the travel restrictions had been removed.(10) On October 16, 1963, Yuri Gagarin appeared before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
While Gagarin’s purported banishment from the United States makes for a good Cold War story, the evidence simply does not support it. Legislation, and governmental opinion, would have allowed Gagarin entry into the United States at any point, had it been politically expedient. However, due to the political climate of the Cold War and the rivalry between the United Stated and Soviet Union, the myth took root and flourished.
What do you think of Gagarin and JFK? Let us know below.
References
1 “Written Presidential Orders | The American Presidency Project,” n.d., https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/app-categories/presidential/written-presidential-orders
2 Electronic Reading Room - USCIS. “Charlie Chaplin,” December 25, 1977. Accessed April 11, 2023. https://www.uscis.gov/records/electronic-reading-room?ddt_mon=&ddt_yr=&query=Chaplin&items_per_page=10.
3 Electronic Reading Room - USCIS. “John Lennon,” December 8, 1980. Accessed April 11, 2023. https://www.uscis.gov/records/electronic-reading-room?ddt_mon=&ddt_yr=&query=john+lennon&items_per_page=10.
4 U.S. Department of State, Office of The Historian. “National Security Council Report NSC 5508/1,” March 26, 1955. Accessed April 11, 2023. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1955-57v24/d94.
5 17 April 1961, US Department of State Staff Summary, Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files. Departments and Agencies. State, 1961: April-May, pg 166/ https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKPOF/088/JFKPOF-088-001?image_identifier=JFKPOF-088-001-p0001
6 J Logsdon. 2016. John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon. Palgrave Macmillan. 96-97.
7 State to Paris, Telegram 1839, June 26 1961, 033.6140/6-2461, 1960-63 CDF, RG59, USNA.
8 U.S. Department of State, Office of The Historian. “Memorandum From Secretary of State Rusk to President Kennedy,” April 25, 1962. Accessed April 11, 2023. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1955-57v24/d94.
9 Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. White House Central Subject Files. Outer Space (OS). OS: 4-1: Astronauts: General, 1962: 26 March-31 May, page 38. https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKWHCSF/0655/JFKWHCSF-0655-007
10 American Foreign Policy, Current Documents. 1962. Department of State, 1966 .pp. 740-741.
