The Failure Of Operation Paperclip

During the late stages of the war, when the series of events are beginning to turn out quite nicely for the Allies, the United States’ Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency captured German scientists specializing in aerodynamics, chemical weapons, and medicine and extricated them from Germany. Over 1500 Nazi scientists were brought secretly to America without the approval of the State Department, in a project called Operation Paperclip. The operation was made quite efficient by the fact that most of the German’s best scientists were gathered in one area, Peenemunde, as the failures of Germany’s previous battles depleted them of resources, and in the process, protection in other areas. In addition to this, a the United States was given, by
It was obviously disadvantageous from Germany’s point of view on another country taking their smartest people, but these people were used to their full potential in bringing mankind one step forward rather than solely for war purposes. Not as often noted is that Hitler did not respect these great minds nearly as much as America had - scientists were sent to the front lines like any other soldier, and it was not until 1943 after the man failed attempts to invade USSR that these scientists were recalled to develop new war technology. Despite fueling the Soviet Union’s distrust for America, if Germany’s scientists were not taken, it was most likely that the Soviet Union will, which would be disadvantageous, if not threatening, to the balance of power for the many countries that are part of the Cold War. From the perspective of scientific advances, rocket scientists, including Wernher von Braun, were brought to Fort Bliss in Texas and White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico to help the United States experiment with different rockets - von Braun later became a director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. He was responsible for the architecture of the Apollo 8 Saturn V launch vehicle, which greatly assisted in achieving mankind’s dreams of walking on the moon. There was, however, the ethical cost to allowing these scientists to illegally come to America. Not only did it go against anti-Nazi orders by Truman, but many of these scientists were ignored of or never held accountable for their war crimes which involved human trials or slavery. The main conspiracy ultimately comes from weighing wartime and technological benefits over justice, as protesters would argue that America basically gave a safe haven for Nazis. However, the environment that these scientists grew up in undeniably play an effect on their political views and decisions for their country, and those who