Operation Paperclip
Secret U.S. program that recruited 1,600+ Nazi scientists, engineers, and technicians for government employment after WWII.
Overview
Operation Paperclip was a secret U.S. intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians — many former members of the Nazi Party and SS — were taken from former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after World War II. Conducted by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), it ran from 1945 to 1959. Recruits included Wernher von Braun (V-2 / Saturn V), Arthur Rudolph (Saturn V manager, later denaturalized for war crimes), and Hubertus Strughold ('father of space medicine').
Timeline
- 1945-05Operation Overcast (precursor) begins.
- 1946-09Renamed 'Paperclip' (after paperclips marking files of 'security risks').
- 1955Wernher von Braun becomes U.S. citizen.
- 1973Program officially closed.
- 1984Arthur Rudolph leaves U.S. under threat of denaturalization for Mittelwerk slave labor.
Evidence on Record
- 01JIOA records (NARA, RG 330)
- 02Annie Jacobsen, 'Operation Paperclip' (2014) — extensive FOIA documentation
- 03Hunt v. CIA (1992) FOIA litigation
Theories & Disputes
JIOA scrubbed Nazi affiliations from dossiers to bypass Truman's directive.
Influenced both NASA's Apollo program and U.S. chemical/biological weapons research at Fort Detrick.