Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America
by Annie Jacobsen
View on GoodreadsJacobsen's history of the postwar US program that brought more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians — many of them committed Nazis with documented war-crime involvement — to work on American military programs.
Core ideas
- The program was officially restricted to scientists "not actively involved" with Nazi activities; in practice, the restriction was systematically evaded because the strategic value to the US was judged to outweigh the moral cost.
- Wernher von Braun's V-2 work used slave labor at Mittelwerk where roughly 20,000 prisoners died; he became the public face of NASA's Saturn V program — the institutional whitewashing is part of the story.
- The book documents both the strategic-rationalization machinery and the specific officials who knew exactly who they were bringing in, which closes the standard "they didn't know" defense.
Published2014
Pages575
ISBN9780316221047
ReadMay 2024
