"Revealed: The Controversial Secret Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to the US"

Discover the shocking truth behind the US recruitment of Nazi scientists during the Cold War

Operation Paperclip was a secret program that brought more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians to the United States after World War II. These individuals, who included members of the Nazi Party and those who had worked on military projects during the war, were recruited to help America's military and space programs.

The U.S. government saw the opportunity to take advantage of the expertise of these scientists and engineers, and to prevent their knowledge from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union. The operation, which was authorized by President Harry S. Truman on August 8, 1945, and continued until October 1959, was designed to bring scientists and engineers to the United States under "temporary" visas. Many of them ended up staying in the country permanently, and some, such as Wernher von Braun and his V-2 rocket team, became American citizens and played key roles in the American space program.

However, the operation was not without controversy. Some of the scientists and engineers, such as Arthur Rudolph, the director of the V-2 rocket program, were later accused of war crimes and forced to leave the country. Rudolph was accused of using slave labor at the Peenemünde Army Research Center, while Hubertus Strughold, a medical doctor and researcher who worked on the V-2 rocket program, was accused of conducting medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners during the war.

German Nazis in NASA.

The extent of the U.S. government's involvement in Operation Paperclip was not publicly revealed until the 1970s when the documents related to the operation were declassified. The full extent of the operation was revealed in the 1980s when the U.S. government released additional documents.