Astronaut Michael Collins' First Speech to HS Students as Assistant Secretary of State - 4/29/1970

In January 1970, at the request of President Richard Nixon, Air Force Colonel Michael Collins, the Command Module Pilot for the historic Apollo 11 moon landing mission in July 1969, resigned from NASA to be sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. One of his primary missions in this new role was to help the young people of America better understand the purpose and goals of the United States Government in its involvement in Southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam.
Colonel Collins gave his first speech to high school students in his new role at Oakton High School in Vienna, VA on April 29, 1970. This was 9 months after his Apollo 11 mission and just 2 weeks after the fateful Apollo 13 mission which exploded on the way to the moon, but returned safely to the earth. He makes reference to the Apollo 13 mission in his opening remarks.
Trained as an Air Force fighter pilot and NASA astronaut, Colonel Collins was not a gifted or engaging speaker. His prepared remarks were rather brief and strictly along scripted government lines, but he opened the floor to take questions from the students. We were a tough audience and, despite the fame of this “hero” who had just been to the moon less than a year earlier, the students posed some very direct questions about why we were fighting in Vietnam.
This is the full audio of his speech and the subsequent Q&A he held with the students at Oakton. There is only brief video of the introduction by OHS Student Government President John Massa and Colonel Collins' opening remarks. The balance of the audio is presented with still pictures from that morning.
The original reel-to-reel audio tape of this speech is now part of the historic audio collections of the National Archives within the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, CA.