Thread by @wideawake_media

Operation Paperclip is one of history’s most renowned—and misunderstood—secret programs, yet many people still don’t know it existed.

It’s a deep rabbit hole, so here’s a quick overview.

THREAD 🧵

After World War II, the U.S. knew there had been substantial German scientific progress, especially in rocketry, aviation, and chemical weaponry, and wanted to keep these advancements out of Soviet hands at the start of the Cold War.

Werner Osenberg, chief of the German Defense Research Association, received orders in 1943 to compile a detailed list of the most brilliant scientific thinkers in Germany. These individuals were going to be reassigned from the front lines to research facilities within the Nazi regime to improve weapons development.

Allied soldiers spotted professors trying to destroy documents during an investigation at Bonn University. Acting on a tip from a Polish lab technician, Allied forces located documents in a toilet. The records contained names of scientists, and the list became known as the Osenberg List. Upon finding Osenberg’s office, they discovered a wealth of information about the scientists and their projects. It was obvious just how valuable that information might prove to be.

At first, the U.S. only intended to seize and interview scientists on the Osenberg List as part of Operation Overcast. After the U.S. realized how advanced Nazi technology was, the plan shifted, and Operation Paperclip emerged. Paperclips were used to identify Nazi scientists; it was a secret sign that those files were to be kept from superiors.

Scientists were chosen to come to the United States based on their expertise as well as their potential to contribute to U.S. military and scientific advancements. They had been identified by U.S. intelligence as valuable assets during the Allied occupation of Germany.

The recruitment of over 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians took place between 1945 and 1959 and included some with questionable wartime pasts, as many were former Nazi Party members and even war criminals.

These men received new names and identities. Their expertise spanned a spectrum of disciplines, including rocketry, aviation, chemistry, medicine, and physics, and their collective presence shaped U.S. military and civilian technological advances for decades.

Adapting to American life proved challenging for these German scientists and their families. They often settled on military bases or in isolated scientific communities, facing suspicion and fascination from American neighbors. Their children attended local schools, and families became active participants in community life.

Ethical controversies arose in the program due to the questionable backgrounds of the scientists. Their pasts changed or ignored for the sake of national security and technological advancement. Their histories were hidden, occasionally involving fabricated or cleaned-up records.

Among the hundreds of German scientists brought to the United States through Operation Paperclip, several stand out for their controversial backgrounds and significant achievements. Wernher von Braun, a former SS member and the chief architect of the V-2 rocket program, later became a pivotal figure in the development of the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo missions at NASA.

Hubertus Strughold (below), known as the “father of space medicine,” contributed essential research to aerospace medicine, though his wartime experiments raised serious ethical questions.

Other notable figures include Kurt Debus, the first director of Kennedy Space Center, and Arthur Rudolph (below), who managed the Saturn V rocket program.

The program’s most visible success was in the field of rocketry. Wernher von Braun’s team was instrumental in the creation of the Redstone and Jupiter rockets, both of which became cornerstones of the U.S. ballistic missile program. Their innovations culminated in the Saturn V rocket, which propelled the Apollo astronauts to the Moon.

Strughold’s contributions laid the groundwork for safe human spaceflight, while others advanced jet propulsion, guided missile systems, and nerve agent research.

Operation Paperclip was orchestrated by government agencies, beginning with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. The Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) coordinated much of the recruitment and resettlement, often with assistance from the U.S. Army and, later, the Air Force. These agencies sometimes altered or concealed the scientists’ records to facilitate their entry into the country, especially when facing potential legal or ethical obstacles.

The program’s controversial nature sparked intense debate within government circles and among the public. Officials in the State Department and the Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) objected to the admission of individuals implicated in war crimes or Nazi Party activities, while advocates pointed to the strategic imperative of outpacing Soviet scientific efforts.

Congressional hearings occasionally probed these ethical questions, but Cold War demands often overrode moral objections. Public revelations about the scientists’ pasts in subsequent decades reignited these debates, generating significant criticism from Jewish organizations, Holocaust survivors, and human rights advocates.

Operation Paperclip scientists rarely experienced legal penalties for their pasts; however, Arthur Rudolph was found guilty of using slave labor at the Dora-Nordhausen concentration camp. He struck a bargain with the Justice Department: in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he would leave the country and abandon his citizenship. He complied in the spring of 1984.

The legacy of Operation Paperclip is profound. The scientific and technological advancements driven by these expatriates were vital to the establishment of NASA, the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and advances in aviation and medicine.

The operation also influenced U.S. immigration policy, leading to special allowances for individuals considered “essential” to national security, and set precedents for later secrecy in government recruitment initiatives during the Cold War.

It faced criticism for prioritizing strategic advantage over ethical considerations. Such actions continue to be debated by historians and ethicists in terms of their implications, including the moral burden of involving former Nazis in national endeavors. It established a precedent for future operations involving scientists with controversial pasts and raised questions regarding morality, scientific ethics, and the ramifications of ignoring past war crimes for present-day advantages.

Growing public awareness of Operation Paperclip resulted in the declassification of documents. This sparked books, documentaries, and scholarly articles. The release of these records transformed historians’ understanding of the program’s scope, the nature of the scientists’ pasts, and the extent of official cover-ups.

This thread was written for Wide Awake Media by @JebraFaushay.

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