As World War II was entering its final stages, American and British organizations teamed up to scour occupied Germany for as much military, scientific and technological development research as they could uncover.
Trailing behind Allied combat troops, groups such as the Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee began confiscating war-related documents and materials and interrogating scientists as German research facilities were seized by Allied forces.
In a covert affair originally dubbed Operation Overcast but later renamed Operation Paperclip, roughly 1,600 of these German scientists were brought to the United States to work on America's behalf during the Cold War.
Officials within the JIOA and Office of Strategic Services-the forerunner to the CIA-bypassed this directive by eliminating or whitewashing incriminating evidence of possible war crimes from the scientists' records, believing their intelligence to be crucial to the country's postwar efforts.
Wernher von Braun in 1961 with fellow Operation Paperclip scientists working on a Saturn rocket.
One of the most well-known recruits was Wernher von Braun, the technical director at the Peenemunde Army Research Center in Germany who was instrumental in developing the lethal V-2 rocket that devastated England during the war.
Although defenders of the clandestine operation argue that the balance of power could have easily shifted to the Soviet Union during the Cold War if these Nazi scientists were not brought to the United States, opponents point to the ethical cost of ignoring their abhorrent war crimes without punishment or accountability.
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