If wars could be considered investments, World War II was looking to be a bad one. The Allies had at last conquered Hitler's army but had paid for victory with an inconceivable cost: America alone had forfeited 296 billion dollars and nearly half a million American lives. In the spring of 1945, an elite task force of American soldiers and scientists were scouring the remains of Nazi occupied territory in a strategic incursion coined "Operation Plunder," searching for anything that could compensate for the excessive cost of the war. However, results from this operation were not forthcoming, as Operation Plunder always seemed to be one step behind their enemy. Time and again, when American intelligence discovered a new research facility, only empty file cabinets, illegible scraps, and ashes remained. That would all change on March 23, 1945. Scouting allied soldiers reported seeing Bonn university professors burning stacks of papers. In the subsequent raid, a bedraggled document was salvaged from a half flushed toilet. The salvaged paper would not only provide the restitution Americans desperately sought, but would also become a decisive weapon in the United State versus Soviet Union confrontation.
The document intended for ………… would become known as the Osenberg List. Created by Dr. Werner Osenberg, it contained the names of fifteen thousand of the Third Reich's most eminent scientists: the country's most valuable commodity, as well as their fields of interest, addresses, and research locations. Military technology innovation had, quite literally, skyrocketed during World War II. The Third Reich had put a high premium on innovation and granted their scientists open pocketbooks and free reign over their experiments. By the end of the war, German innovation had largely surpassed the Allies in many fields such as missiles, aeronautics, and communications. During the war, V-1 and V-2 rockets had reigned down on London, bringing a new kind of terror. One of the chief engineers behind the V-2 rockets bragged that if the war had been just two years longer, the rockets could have developed "pin point" accuracy and won the war for Germany. The Third Reich also developed the first operational jet-fighter aircrafts, which ruled the skies in regard to speed and arms capacity. Even the biological and chemical weapons developed by Reich scientists, although they were never used in battle, were called "astounding" by British agents upon their discovery. General Curtis Lemay, admitted that, "In the field of weaponry [Americans] were still far behind the Germans when the war was over." With the fall of the Third Reich, America expected to inherit the distinction for military innovator because of their monopoly on atomic technology. However, American leaders also knew there was " a lot of catching up to do," if they hoped to match the prestige of Germany military innovation. The discovery of the Osenberg List gave America a serious advantage in the search for the German military technology by giving them a roadmap to their scientists.
Pride was not the only factor driving the Americans to hunt for German war technology; America was also planning for the next war as tensions with the Soviet Union were threatening to disrupt the newly won peace. The tension between the Soviet Union and America were largely due to ideological differences, specifically, "the innate antagonism between capitalism and Socialism." During the war, the two countries were allies out of necessity to beat the common foe: the Axis powers. Once the WWII was over, the Allies disagreed over how to redraw the borders of Europe. America, the self appointed 'guardians of freedom' wanted to contain the spread of communism, while the Soviet Union wanted to expand into eastern Europe. In addition to competing for territory, the Soviet Union and the United States also competed for the 'spoils of war:' both human and technological.
In an attempt to gain control over the Soviet Union, America turned to its monopoly on the atomic bomb. Under this plan of 'atomic diplomacy' James Byrnes, the Secretary of State, described the atomic bomb as "the gun behind the door," and the "master card" to Soviet corporation. However this plan had one major flaw: Stalin seemed neither surprised nor scared by the existence of the bomb. His cool demeanor led American leaders to fear he was working on his own version of the bomb and this led American officials to fear the Soviet Union would close the weapons gap and potentially surpass American military technology. In order for atomic diplomacy to work, America needed the best weapons. Therefore both these countries were looking at Germany's military technology programs with avarice: America to maintain the gap and the Soviet Union to close it.
Recruiting the German scientists would not only bolster each of the country's military technology programs, but would also deprive their enemy of talent. Although the battle for atomic technology was being won by America, military and political leaders knew the country had to keep on innovating if they expected to remain preeminent and therefore heavily supported a plan to recruit German scientists. General Curtis LeMay described the aims of the recruitment as a move to, "rescue those able and intelligent Jerries [Germans] from behind the barbed wire, and get them going in our various military projects, and feed them into American industry." American leaders hoped scientists listed on the Osenberg List would propel America to a new age of scientific superiority.
The German scientists were not oblivious of their worth. Many 'allowed' themselves to be caught by American forces because they knew no future remained for them in Germany except persecution, hunger and unemployment. Wernher von Braun, one of the lead scientists on the German rocket program, a program that was 20 years ahead of that of the United States, knew his value all too well. In the wake of the fall of the Third Reich, von Braun hid the V-2 rocket documents in a secret underground weapons facility in order to use them as a bargaining chip against America. He then turned himself in to US officials at a, saying, "My country had lost two wars in my young lifetime. The next time I want to be on the winning side." In an artful blend of manipulation and allure, von Braun taunted American officials with the secret location of the V-2 documents and the possibility of using the rocket to win the Space Race for the United States. When von Braun turned himself in to U.S authorities, an American GI remarked that he "conducted himself as a celebrity rather than a prisoner." On account of von Braun's boasts, another GI remarked, "If we haven't caught the biggest scientists in the Third Reich, we had certainly caught the biggest liar!" In a later interview, von Braun would say, "We felt no moral scruples about the possible future use of our brainchild [rockets]. We were interested solely in exploring outer space. It is simply a question with us of how the golden cow could be milked most successfully." All von Braun asked was that the United States overlook his crimes against humanity, including his use of slave labor in underground weapons facilities, which is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 prisoners. A detail which von Braun didn't seem too concerned with, as he would later say, "Working in a dictatorship can have its advantages… just a press of a button and [a scientist] can be supplied with a concentration camp full of labor."
American officials were also interested in scientists from other fields besides physics. During the war, reports had leaked that the Third Reich boasted a large supply of biological and chemical weapons. When these reports were confirmed as true, American officials were distressed to learn they had been outstripped in the biological and chemical arms race, and turned to German specialists in those fields. Dr. Schreiber was the highest-ranking physician of the Third Reich who was accused of medical experimentation against incarcerated Jewish prisoners of war and of weaponing the bubonic plague. Dr. Fritz Hoffman was the Third Reich's specialist in nerve agents and poison gases. Both of these men were among the high priority targets for American recruitment.
However one hitch prohibited these scientists from becoming respectable United States citizens. U.S. Immigration law prevented the entry of persons with more than nominal involvement in the Nazi party and many of the scientists in the Osenberg List had far more than 'nominal' participation in the party: many were ardent Nazis.
In an effort to bypass U.S. immigration law, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) released a directive that explained their intentions for the program. According to the directive, published on July 6, 1945, the program was to be "a form of exploitation of chosen, rare minds whose continuing intellectual productivity we wish to use." Furthermore the document stated, "No known or alleged war criminals should be brought to the United States… The purpose of this plan should be understood to be temporary military exploitation of the minimum number of German specialists necessary." The program formalized in the decree was given the code name Operation Overcast. In an executive order published two days later, President Truman allowed information from this program to be withheld from the public if it benefited 'national security.' The executive order also largely removed Truman from future decisions made involving the project and instead put the project under the jurisdiction of the War and Navy Department.
The German scientists were not happy with the conditions dictated by the JCS. While they were exploited in America, their families would be left to their own devices in Germany. In the face of this, many of the scientists were refusing contracts with the United States. Even more problematic, America's rigidity was leading scientists to be recruited by Russians who were promising high wages and comfortable living conditions.
Desperate to keep the German scientists from Russian hands, a subcommittee of the JCS, called the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) was tasked with purging evidence of war crimes and Nazism from the scientists’ records, thus making them meet criteria for US citizenship. The JIOA sent the German scientists to Canada and Mexico before sending them to the United States in order to further obliterate their Nazi pasts. This new operation was called Operation Paperclip due to the paperclips used to secure the scientists' new expunged identities to their old Nazi ones. To everyone outside the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War Department, the German scientists being brought into the United States were no longer temporary employees of the government for exploitation but instead were now innocuous American citizens.
No one from the government could have anticipated the public's reaction to Operation Paperclip. Under Operation Overcast, the public had voiced no opposition. The silence was largely due to the way that the operation was presented. In the JCS directive of 1945, Operation Overcast was described as a temporary project, meant to reimburse the country for the excessive costs of war. The Reich scientists, Americans were told, had provided America with a way to pasteurize juice without heat, make run-proof hosiery, and pull wool from sheepskin without harming the animal. They were presented as a temporary reimbursement to the United States economy while they were working to improve the lives of American citizens. However once the Reich scientists' statuses changed from temporary employee to American citizen, the public was opposed. They did not trust the Germans to be loyal, as one American said, "Certainly any person who can transfer loyalties from one ideology to another upon the shifting of a meal ticket is not better than Judas!" Even though the scientists' records were expunged of their Nazi pasts, Americans wanted nothing to do with Germany. They found temporary restitution agreeable, due to the heavy costs of the war, but permanent citizenship for Germans completely unacceptable.
On December 11, 1946, Gallup conducted a poll to gauge the nation opinion on the matter of importing the German scientists. The survey posed the question,
"It has been suggested that we bring over to America one thousand German scientists who used to work for the Nazis and have them work with our own scientists on scientific problems. Do you think this is a good or bad ideas?"
Approximately 59% of respondents considered the plan to be a bad idea. However responses were strongly correlated to environment and education level; with high statistical reliability, the demographics of high-educated and large city dwellers substantially favored the program, while the demographics of low education small town dwellers vastly opposed the program.
However, even among the highly educated support was not universal. In fact some of the most vehement opposition came from one of the world's greatest minds: Albert Einstein. Einstein had experienced the horror of the rise of Hitler and believed it was the duty of German scientists to oppose Hitler and his racist Nazi policies. Einstein had experienced the horror of the rise of Hitler. A German citizen from 1914-1933, he revoked his citizenship and immigrated to the United States when Hitler came to power. In December 1946, Eisenstein joined with forty other eminent United States individuals to express their concerns over Operation Paperclip to President Truman and his cabinet. In the telegram, they wrote,
"We hold these individuals to be potentially dangerous carriers of racial and religious hatred… If it is deemed imperative to utilize these individuals in this country we earnestly petition you to make sure that they will not be granted permanent residence of citizenship.. [granting the opportunity] of inculcating those anti-democratic doctrines which seek to undermine and destroy national unity."
Additionally, members of the American Federation of Scientists (AFS) wrote to President Truman about their concerns that the scientists were not as eminent and indispensable to America as they asserted.
Further opposition to Operation Paperclip, particularly from officials in the State Department, grew from frustrations at the dichotomy of the immigration policy. President Truman as well as the American public favored immigration for people deracinated by the war such as concentration camp refugees; yet, very few of these citizens were able to immigrate to the US in the following years. It seemed unforgivable that America would deny citizenship to the people who suffered from the Germans, but allow immigration of those German who had either dealt in the suffering, or stood by passively as it occurred around them.
The JCS and military leaders were not ignorant to the debate generated by the program; however, they defended their action with the ever-vague idiom of "national interest." United States officials knew the country could not afford to stagnate after developing the atom bomb and an emphasis had to be put on invention. However, citizens of the United States already felt they had won and were weary of any war activity— they no longer wanted to develop weapons of mass destruction after Hiroshima and they no longer wanted to develop chemical weapons after hearing horror stories about Nazi gas chambers. America needed to look elsewhere for innovation, and the German scientists were the most logical choice. Furthermore, German scientists wanted to leave their war-ruined country. If America did not recruit them, the scientists would happily go to the Soviet Union and develop Russian technology to be used against us. In this scenario the entire security of the United States would be at stake.
Another contributing factor to the decision to proceed with Operation Paperclip was the financial rewards of the program. The technical documentation of the rocket parts that the scientists brought with them had alone been conservatively estimated to be worth $400 to $500 million dollars. Additionally, German scientists had received nominal salaries for their work under the Third Reich. Unaware of typically American wages, the German scientists were exploited in America and typically received salaries $2,000 lower than their American counterparts.
As the Cold War heated in the summer of 1947, American officials felt the need to further deprive the Russians of German talent by recruiting lower ranking German scientists to work in American industry. Whereas Operation Paperclip had streamlined eminent German scientists for work in military projects, a new operation, code named 'National Interest,' eased the immigration of less valued German scientists to work in American companies, defense contractors, and universities. National Interest made it easier for German scientists to get government clearance for classified projects than for American scientists. Furthermore, the reduced salary of German scientists made it very difficult for other US citizens to compete for jobs. For example, Casimir Jobell, a Polish engineer and inventor who was a slave laborer for Henschel aircraft company during World War II, emigrated to United States after being liberated from the labor camp. More qualified than many of the 'German specialists' admitted under National Interest, Jobell was never employed for his talents and ultimately died a dishwasher in Boston.
In the end, America recruited more than sixteen hundred of the initial fifteen thousand on the Osenberg List. From the recruited men, 80% were ardent Nazis, many were suspected of crimes against humanity, but only eight were indicted, and at least one was later found to be a Soviet spy. The subsequent careers of the three scientists who were the highest priority recruits (von Braun, Schreiber and Hoffman) demonstrated the impact of Project Paperclip.
On July 20, 1969 von Braun lived up to his promise and successfully landed Americans on the moon. Lauded as the "Father of Rocket Science," von Braun was also the first director of NASA's Space Marshall Space Flight Center, the chief architect of the Saturn V rocket, and recipient of the 1975 National Medal of Science. In 1965, Tom Lehrer recorded a satirical song that criticized von Braun's amorality. "Gather around while I sing to you of Wernher von Braun," Lehrer sang, "A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience… 'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down, That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun."
Dr. Schreiber's career in America was cut short after journalist Drew Pearson revealed Schreiber's affiliation with the Nazi party, and his past of human medical experiments, such as his operations on conscious Polish girls to infect them with gas gangrene. In the subsequent media hailstorm, the American government helped Schreiber immigrate to Argentina, where he continued to work on American medical projects.
Dr. Hoffmann, the Reich specialist in chemical weaponry, lived a quiet life in California, developing animal and human chemical toxins, as well as the infamous defoliant Agent Orange, which would be heavily used in the Vietnam War and was later proved to have poisoned young children in Vietnam. Hoffmann's daughter Gabriella would later attest that it was a good thing her gentle father had died before discovering Agent Orange’s toxicity because he would be devastated at the news, since he "couldn't hurt a fly."
America would continue developing and stockpiling chemical and biological weapons for nearly thirty years after the first German scientists came to America. The Geneva Protocol forbade the use of "poisonous" chemical and biological weapons, however it did not ban the creation, amassing, or exploration of these arsenals. America bypassed the regulation with their invention of Agent Orange, which was meant to be a defoliant, not a toxic gas, although later studies verified its toxicity. Agent Orange was far from the worst weapon America owned. The weapons program would continue until President Nixon finally put an end to the international game of chicken. On March 25, 1969, Nixon said, "Mankind already carries in its hands too many of the seeds of its own destruction," and ordered the disarmament of the American biological and chemical weapons programs.
It would be remiss to categorically reproach the American government for the ethical breeches of Operation Paperclip. The world had yet to practically establish a definition of 'ethical science,' as evident by ethically ambiguous American experiments contemporaneous to Operation Paperclip such as the Tuskegee Syphillis Study, irradiation experiments, and Operation Plumbbob. Furthermore, America was racing against Russia for the German scientists. A race, which if lost, would jeopardize the safety of the country. Operation Paperclip was a synergistic exploitation on the part of both the German scientists and the United States government. The scientists gained pardon for their crimes against humanity and employment, while America received discounted pioneering labor and the weaponry necessary to eclipse and outgun the Soviet Union. The legacy of the operation includes run-proof hosiery, the Apollo space missions which landed man on the moon, Agent Orange, weaponized bubonic plague, and technology that profoundly affected the post-war world and likely enabled the successful defense of the United States..
Joachim Joesten, a journalist who vehement opposed Operation Paperclip astutely summarized the ambiguity of the Paperclip Project:
"If you enjoy mass murder, but also treasure your skin, be a scientist, son. It's the only way, nowadays, of getting away with murder. It isn't safe to be a warmongering politician. If you lose, they'll hang you…. If you are a scientist, you will be honored regardless of who wins. Your enemies will coddle you, and compete for you, no matter how many of their countrymen you may have killed."
Joesten's quote begs the question, did the German scientists get away with mass murder? Lastly, was forgiving the unforgivable worth it?