Sure was… and I’m not old enough to remember, either…
Could have used the Olympic flag, too.
“I declare the first Lunar Olympics open. I also declare that since the U.S. is the only country in attendance, we win all the medals by default. I therefore declare the games closed…”
But since it was a whole Cold War patriotism, run the commies nose in it deal…
Um, “rub” not “run”. Though giving all the Russians runny noses would have been neat. 
Nope…only the United States has landed people on the moon. Other countries may have sent probes but I’m not sure about that.
Basically the place wasn’t interesting enough to go to the expense of sending people to the moon. After the US got bragging rights for being first no country could dig up reasons compelling enough to bother with the effort.
In fact, the very first contact with the moon was a Soviet probe that basically ran right into it. The Soviets also had a Moon program, but abandoned it once it was clear the US was going to win.
Do you know what the property taxes would run on a piece of real estate that size? And the insurance! Sheesh! I don’t even want to think about it.
I knew a guy who worked for NASA in the 60’s. He said they knew the Soviets would not get to the moon but they played up the whole “space race” thing just to make sure they got plenty of funding - and it worked.
MattTheCroc asked:
There’s a difference between claiming the moon as US property, and leaving a sign “We were here first!”
Sorry no cites for this, I went looking and couldn’t dig them up quickly. There was at least on someone’s mind the idea of planting some sort of generic Earth flag rather than an individual U.S. one, but Congress nixed that idea. The flag was planted as a pride thing - the equivalent of “John Doe was here.” But it did not represent claiming the Moon (or the particular landing zones) for the U.S.
The Russians did have a moon program. They sent robotic probes that even returned samples. But their manned program didn’t get there.
kpm, I seriously doubt that claim. For one, the Soviets were ahead of the U.S. in every major space hurdle up to that point, and the U.S. had to be bold to leapfrog them to the moon. Second, the U.S. program had to shuffle their schedule to rush the first landing because they were worried about meeting Kennedy’s deadline. They were seriously worried about the Russians getting there first. At the time the Soviets were beginning to have major troubles, but they were covering that up very well - the U.S. did not learn the full extent of their program’s difficulties until the USSR fell and Russia began international cooperation with the ISS. It was a state secret.
Well, the cool thing is, the Sea of Tranquility is up for grabs. I’m gonna build a rocket and claim it. Any investors interested?