We'd all been lulled into believing the emperor had clothes on when indeed he was naked. The problems had been there to be seen. All of us close to the program didn't want to see them.

The fact that it comes at a particularly inopportune moment is unfortunate, but either we are serious about long-term commitments like this or not. Nobody is asking for more money. Apollo was done as a warlike mobilization of national resources and there's no reason to do that now.

It's been pretty well coordinated among the centers. It appears to provide for a smooth transition.

It has several elements to it. One is to say that the people who did Apollo were pretty smart,

They got their medications, books and clothes. Some brought little portable game systems to play. We wanted to get everybody out and make sure we were all safe.

[Refugees] think they are alone and that no one cares. All they know are their own problems. We try to show them what America and Canada looks like and then how people are caring about them from different places in the world.