Apollo was Nixon's rival Kennedy's program.

Nixon had paid for the Vietnam war by printing money, and the economy was in a bind.

AF Sec Brown was the force behind the cancellation of Saturn, and the closing of its production line.

Further, the Moon was disappointing.

When Watergte came along, Nixon proposed a war on cancer. That was not a bad idea, but it got lost in the break-in scandal.

von Braun had known early on that the Saturn V was too expensive, and had set Koelle to work on a very nice shuttle.

But the military (or was it Thiokol?) managed to get that first shuttle design killed.

Finally, Nixon forced the SRBs from Thiokol on Fletcher for the shuttle. (Two interviews, on tape.)

If we had of gone with the original gas pressure fed liquids that von Braun et al wanted, then
the US would have had an insurmountable lead in commercial sat launchers.

Given their history, I don't know if I can evaluate Thiokol proposals in an unbiased manner.

But I do simply agree with Von Braun, they lack abort modes.

In any case, Ares 1 is a dog, and IMO we should abandon it now and go with the Direct architecture.