"Aldrin had expected to be the first to step off—during the Gemini space walks, the commander stayed inside while the No. 2 went extravehicular—and he made clear his desire for the distinction, going so far as to lobby the other Apollo astronauts. His father, an impossible-to-please oil-company executive, also made a ham-fisted argument of his case to NASA officials. Was it Armstrong’s seniority in the program that led to his being chosen instead? A preference by the space agency, amid the miasma of Vietnam, for a civilian rather than someone military (Aldrin was still an Air Force officer) to take the first step? Hansen says that NASA even “used the technicalities of hatch design and LM interior layout” to create the fiction that it was just plain easier for Armstrong to exit first. But the real reason, revealed only decades later by Chris Kraft, involved a perception of Armstrong’s greater suitability for American legend: “Neil was Neil,” Kraft explains. “Calm, quiet, and absolute confidence. We all knew that he was the Lindbergh type. He had no ego.” Armstrong wouldn’t discuss the matter with Aldrin, and Kraft got what he wanted."

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critics/051003crbo_books