A gripping history of one of the United States'most controversial Cold War intelligence operations.Project Paperclip brought hundreds of German scientists and engineers, including aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun, to the United States in the first decade after World War II. More than the freighters full of equipment or the documents recovered from caves and hastily abandoned warehouses, the German brains who designed and built the V-2 rocket and other'wonder weapons'for the Third Reich proved invaluable to America's emerging military-industrial complex. Whether they remained under military employment, transitioned to civilian agencies like NASA, or sought more lucrative careers with corporations flush with government contracts, German specialists recruited into the Paperclip program assumed enormously influential positions within the labyrinthine national security state. Drawing on recently declassified documents from intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the State Department, Brian E. Crim's Our Germans examines the process of integrating German scientists into a national security state dominated by the armed services and defense industries. Crim explains how the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency enticed targeted scientists, whitewashed the records of Nazis and war criminals, and deceived government agencies about the content of security investigations. Exploring the vicious bureaucratic rivalries that erupted over the wisdom, efficacy, and morality of pursuing Paperclip, Our Germans reveals how some Paperclip proponents and scientists influenced the perception of the rival Soviet threat by volunteering inflated estimates of Russian intentions and technical capabilities. As it describes the project's embattled legacy, Our Germans reflects on the myriad ways that Paperclip has been remembered in culture and national memory. As this engaging book demonstrates, whether characterized as an expedient Cold War program born from military necessity or a dishonorable episode, the project ultimately reflects American ambivalence about the military-industrial complex and the viability of an'ends justifies the means'solution to external threats.

motw/Our Germans_ Project Paperclip - Brian E. Crim.pdf

Crim, Brian E.;

United States, United States of America

Illustrated, PT, 2018

Baltimore, 2018

producers:
Adobe PDF Library 15.0

Memory of the World Librarian: Slowrotation

Project Paperclip brought hundreds of German scientists and engineers, including aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun, to the United States in the first decade after World War II. More than the freighters full of equipment or the documents recovered from caves and hastily abandoned warehouses, the German brains who designed and built the V-2 rocket and other "wonder weapons" for the Third Reich proved invaluable to Americas emerging military-industrial complex. Whether they remained under military employment, transitioned to civilian agencies like NASA, or sought more lucrative careers with corporations flush with government contracts, German specialists recruited into the Paperclip program assumed enormously influential positions within the labyrinthine national security state.
Drawing on recently declassified documents from intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the State Department, Brian Crims Our Germans examines the process of integrating German scientists into a national security state dominated by the armed services and defense industries. Crim explains how the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency enticed targeted scientists, whitewashed the records of Nazis and war criminals, and deceived government agencies about the content of security investigations. Exploring the vicious bureaucratic rivalries that erupted over the wisdom, efficacy, and morality of pursuing Paperclip, Our Germans reveals how some Paperclip proponents and scientists influenced the perception of the rival Soviet threat by volunteering inflated estimates of Russian intentions and technical capabilities.
As it describes the projects embattled legacy, Our Germans reflects on the myriad ways that Paperclip has been remembered in culture and national memory. As this engaging book demonstrates, whether characterized as an expedient Cold War program born from military necessity or a dishonorable episode, the project ultimately reflects American ambivalence about the military-industrial complex and the viability of an "ends justifies the means" solution to external threats.

"Our Germans is a highly engaging history of one of the United States' most controversial intelligence operations during the early Cold War. Project Paperclip brought fifteen hundred German scientists and their dependents to the United States in the first decade after World War II. More than the freighters full of equipment and documents recovered from caves and hastily abandoned warehouses, the "German brains" who designed and built the V-2 rocket and other "wonder weapons" for the Third Reich proved invaluable to America's emerging military-industrial complex. Whether they remained under military employment, transitioned to civilian agencies like NASA, or sought more lucrative careers with corporations flush with government contracts, German specialists recruited into the Paperclip program assumed enormously influential positions within the labyrinthine national security state."--Provided by publisher

Contents 6
List of Figures 8
Acknowledgments 10
List of Abbreviations 12
Introduction 16
1. ​Aristocracy of Evil: The Paperclippers and Nazi Science 32
2. ​Implements of Progress: The Military’s Case for Paperclip 66
3. ​Conscientious Objectors: The State Department and Opposition to Project Paperclip 101
4. ​Their Germans: German Scientists, the Soviet Union, and the US Intelligence Community 134
5. ​Paperclip Vindicated: German Scientists and the Maturation of the National Security State 165
Epilogue 199
Notes 208
Bibliography 244
Index 254
A 254
B 254
C 255
D 255
E 255
F 255
G 256
H 256
I 256
J 256
K 256
L 257
M 257
N 257
O 257
P 258
R 258
S 258
T 259
U 259
V 259
W 259
Y 260
Z 260

2025-10-27