Researching Operation Paperclip was one of the most interesting parts of writing my novel The Golden Doves.
Toward the end of WWII the United States began recruiting top Nazi doctors, physicists and chemists, bringing them to work to the US to work on top secret programs like germ warfare and space projects. They marked the scientists they wanted, by putting a paperclip on their files, and Operation Paperclip was born. Through the secret program the US government brought at least sixteen hundred scientific and research specialists and their families, many with Nazi ties, to live in the US. The U.S. government worked hard to hide the pasts of the scientists they brought to America, many of whom were still ardent Nazis, and began a propaganda campaign to whitewash their pasts.
Author Annie Jacobsen tells the whole sordid story in the fascinating book, Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists To America.
