Yeah you read that right, the US once actually wanted to and planned on bombing the moon and the reasoning behind it is even more illogical than you would think. Maybe you thought that there was a threat of an alien invasion or a deadly meteor on its way to destroy all human life or maybe it was to try out a new weapon ... nope.
However, if you presumed the reasoning behind such an act was "because we can", you are absolutely correct. That's exactly why the US wanted to do it, to one-up the Soviet Union, who were thought to be leading the space race at the time.
(Sputnik 1957)
For such an endeavour you can blame Sputnik the beach-ball-sized satellite slung into space by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, which shocked and disturbed the US officials and like-minded citizens. As the two Cold War forces competed for post-war world dominance, the idea of their enemy gaining any military-industrial advantage was cause for action. Americans needed a reassuring sign that they hadn't lost the space race before it even began and that Sputnik won't be soon followed by Soviet nuclear missiles raining down onto U.S. soil. They needed something big to show their dominance... like nuking the moon... even though it had no practical purpose or national- security goals and its sole purpose was to show that the US is a force to be reckoned with.
The project was considered a top-secret plan and labeled "A Study of Lunar Research Flights" or "Project A119", it only came to light due to research carried out for a biography of Carl Sagan.
(Astronomer, Author Carl Sagan in a laboratory at Cornell University, 1974. )
According to one of the leaders of the project, physicist Leonard Reiffel, hitting the the moon with a ballistic missile would have been relatively easy to do, including hitting the target with an accuracy of about two miles. This accuracy was of great importance because the Air Force wanted the explosion to be clearly visible from Earth. As such, it was decided that the explosion should take place on the border of the visible side of the moon so that the resulting mushroom cloud would be illuminated by the sun, thus giving an incredible site to witness to those watching from their earthly homes.
The problem was, that wouldn't have happened due to the difference between the atmospheres. Mushroom clouds from a nuclear explosion are caused by the movement of dust and debris kicked up in a dense atmosphere. The moon, however, is essentially a vacuum, which means no sound, no shock wave, no push-down from the air pressure—and no mushroom cloud. Just a lot of dust.
The project was eventually scrapped and even though it is not known exactly why there are many justified theories as to why this plan was abandoned. Some say the Air Force canceled the program because of the potential danger to people on earth (in case the missile suffered catastrophic failure the way so many of the early U.S. attempts at spaceflight sadly—and sometimes humorously—did). Others think the scientists were concerned about contaminating the moon with radioactive material and possibly preventing future moon landing missions.
Or it could be that they just realized how crazy the idea sounded and that the public would not respond favorably to the US dropping a nuclear bomb on the moon.
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