True Story
In 1967, Vladimir Komarov, a Russian cosmonaut, was sent into space on the Soyuz 1. Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union, wanted a grand spectacle to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Communist Revolution.
Komarov, his friend Yuri Gagarin (the first human to reach outer space), and some senior technicians had inspected the Soyuz 1 and had found 203 structural problems that would make this machine dangerous to navigate in space. Gagarin wrote a 10-page memo and gave it to his best friend in the KGB, Venyamin Russayev, suggesting the mission be postponed. Nobody dared send it up the chain of command. Everyone who saw that memo, including Russayev, was demoted, fired or sent to Siberia.
Komarov couldn't refuse the mission because the backup cosmonaut would have been his friend Gagarin. He had no wish to allow his friend to die, so he went. As predicted, things failed; antennas didn't open, power was compromised, navigation was faulty, etc.
US intelligence picked up Komarov's radio signals. He died shouting curses at the politicians who had put him inside a botched spaceship.
The scientists and cosmonauts were angry and frustrated. The people mourned.
The politicians were unmoved, except that they didn’t get the grand spectacle that would glorify the party.
This story is a perfect example of how politicians think. And only a fool would think that the politicians of other nations are any different.