What did JFK mean by "and the others" in his "We choose to go to the moon" speech?

Question

In John F. Kennedy's Moon Speech on September 12, 1962 at Rice University, what does "and the others, too" refer to in the following excerpt?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

The specific part of the the following:

that challenge is

• one that we are willing to accept,
• one we are unwilling to postpone, and
• one which we intend to win, and
• the others, too.

It seems to be part of the "that challenge is..." is clause referring to going to the Moon, in which case I'm not sure what it would refer to.

Alternately, does it refer to "do the other things" earlier in the passage, or something else?

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure it's a weak joke calling back to a previous reference in the speech.

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard

"The other things" here refers to climbing the highest mountain, flying the Atlantic, and Rice University playing [American college] football against the University of Texas. Rice and Texas have a long-standing football rivalry (now over a century old); "Rice playing Texas" is a challenge of particular resonance with JFK's audience at this speech. That brings us to the passage you cite:

because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Assuming the same set of "others" here, this is superficially a puzzling construction. The challenges of climbing the highest mountain and flying the Atlantic had already been won, so it's nonsensical to talk about "intending to win" them. That leaves only Rice playing Texas, so my interpretation is that JFK is jokingly saying "we [the United States] intend to go to the moon, and we [his Rice University audience] intend to beat Texas."

Here's the printed script for the speech:

"Why does Rice play Texas?" has been handwritten in (possibly by Kennedy himself) -- a late addition to the text -- and the phrase you're asking about isn't present at all, strongly suggesting it was ad-libbed as a callback to the Rice/Texas reference, which might explain why it's so grammatically clunky.

At the time of the speech, Rice and UT were 5-5 over the previous decade despite UT being a significantly larger school. JFK's speech doesn't seem to have brought Rice much luck; Rice and Texas' next game, a little over a month after the speech, was a 14-14 tie, and in the forty-odd games between the two since then, Rice has only won twice.

Answer 2

"The other things" are the other goals of his administration mentioned earlier in the speech,

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

(Emphasis mine)

Text of speech: https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm

Answer 3

Kennedy gave a significant speech, but most people only hear the sound bites. “the other things” were non-space-based political and legislative initiatives of his he was pitching, such as economic development/growth, including water/agriculture.

That’s what sound bite mentalities and media outlets get you. 1962 predates MTV, let alone Twitter, and Kennedy had a reasonable expectation that anyone hearing him would have heard the rest of the speech, too. Sound bites are a kludge, and did not exist for, oh, the overwhelming majority of human existence. If one cannot recognize a sound bite as being a sound bite, and distinguish it from a public speech, then one is not qualified to pass judgement on that speech per se , let alone speeches in general.

Unfortunately, too many people lack the meta-awareness or media savvy to stop and ask, ‘is this synecdoche? cherry-picking? anomaly hunting? the “Makes Sense Stopping Rule”? etc.’ . Too many people fall for, e. g., Twitter gossip, YouTube conspiracy posts, Facebook re-posts, the Tucker Carlson video, etc.