Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America

Summary

The explosive, darksecrets behind America’s post–World War II science programs from the author ofthe New York Times bestseller Area 51

In the chaos following World War II, some of the greatestspoils of Germany’s resources were the Third Reich’s scientific minds. The USgovernment secretly decided that the value of these former Nazis’ knowledgeoutweighed their crimes and began a covert operation code-named Paperclip toallow them to work in the United States without the public’s full knowledge.Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members,colleagues, and interrogators and with access to German archival documents (includingpapers made available to her by direct descendants of the Third Reich’s rankingmembers), files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and lostdossiers discovered at the National Archives and Harvard University, AnnieJacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwarlives and into one of the most complex, nefarious, and jealously guardedgovernment secrets of the twentieth century.