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(my answer)
The Soviets actually had the first moon landing, however it was a non-manned hard landing in 1959 by Luna 2. The Americans replicated this feat in 1962 with Ranger 4. The Soviets also had the first soft moon landing in 1966 with Luna 9.
The manned moon landing project was more of a PR coup than anything else. JFK needed a project that would energize the public and throw the bulk of public sentiment behind the space initiative. It worked.
The Soviet space program under Sergey Korolev, had a manned moon landing component to it. However after the premature death of Korolev in 1966 (at age 59) and the Soyuz failure in 1967 it fell by the wayside. Instead the Soviets chose to focus their endeavors on the development of space stations instead.
It is worth noting that at one point both the US and the USSR were eager to follow through on a joint Apollo-Soyuz moon project but this collapsed after the assassination of Kennedy
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