Operation Paperclip

The program that brought roughly 1,600 German scientists to the United States after 1945

Overview

Operation Paperclip, run by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency from 1945, recruited German scientists, engineers, and technicians so their expertise would not pass to the Soviets. Wernher von Braun and the rocket team built missiles that eventually carried Americans to the Moon. Recruiters deliberately obscured the Nazi party memberships of some subjects, a fact later documented by Congress and historians. The program exemplified the immediate postwar competition with Moscow for technical talent. Similar programs ran in Britain and the Soviet Union, which recruited German specialists of its own.