You know the whole point of the space race was to prove that we could send ICBMs to the USSR right?

> the whole point of the space race was to prove that we could send ICBMs to the USSR right?

No, it wasn’t. The real world seldom has single causation. Some people supported Apollo as a messaging exercise. Most had other reasons.

And in any case, there are easy ways to demonstrate ICBM competence. Pyongyang isn’t going to the Moon to prove it can bomb Alaska.