Has anyone out there heard of Project Paperclip
before? Probably not. No one wants to think
that Americans needed a scientific boost in the years
following World War II. And maybe we didn't -
maybe we would have made it to the moon all on our own,
even without the help of Nazi rocket scientists.
First, some background...
Toward the end of World War II, it had become
apparent to key Nazis like Martin Bormann that the Third
Reich had no chance of winning the war. A secret,
three-tiered organization known as "The Odessa" was
formed to ensure that the really important Nazis (and
their really important stolen art and looted gold)
escaped to safety after the inevitable fall of Germany.
The first part of the Odessa was a world-wide network
of intelligence assets, which was already in place for
wartime operations and which would continue to look out
for Nazi interests even after the Allies broke down the
doors to Berlin.
The second part of the Odessa was designed by Otto
Skorzeny, the famous commando leader who was also a
personal favorite of Hitler. It consisted of a
system of "ratlines" that would allow for key Nazi
figures to desert the sinking ship of the Third Reich at
the end of the war, and relocate them to safer lands.
The third part was also designed by Skorzeny (in
conjunction with his father-in-law Hjalmar Schacht, the
president of Hitler's Reichsbank). It would handle
the transfer of all the stolen assets the Third Reich
had amassed, thereby ensuring that all the Nazi war
criminals would be able to lead comfortable lives once
they abandoned their homeland.
The United States government supported all three
parts of the Odessa, albeit clandestinely. The
first part was seen as an asset for the U.S., as it
consisted of veteran intelligence assets, some of whom
were already experienced in spying on the Soviet Union.
American intelligence agencies already knew that the
Soviets would be an enormous problem after the war, and
they wanted to get a good head start on the Cold War.
What better way to do that than to recruit veteran spies
who already controlled networks inside the Soviet Union?
If some of these spies were also wanted war criminals,
well, we had to think about the greater good and about
the future rather than the past.
The Americans also supported the third part, since it
meant large amounts of investment money coming into the
country. If the money was dirty and covered with
the blood of millions of innocent lives, well, we had to
concentrate on the economic survival of our country,
didn't we?
But it was in America's support of the second part of
the Odessa where Project Paperclip comes into play.
A major part of the "key Nazis" to be smuggled out of
Europe at the end of the war were scientists who had
been researching rocketry, weaponry, and medicine.
Both the Americans and the Soviets raced toward Berlin
in the hopes of capturing these scientists, but the
Americans won. President Truman was aware of
Project Paperclip, and he agreed to it on the condition
that no confirmed Nazis be included. Since a good
75% of the scientists were enthusiastic Nazis (some of
whom were responsible for heinous concentration camp
experiments) this presented a problem. It was soon
taken care of, though, via the simple solution of
rewriting the intelligence reports on the
scientists-in-question.
After the war, some of these scientists became major
assets to the military-industrial complex. Others
went on to forge breakthroughs in health care (often
based on the results of illegal experiments conducted on
death camp Jews). A key scientist named Wehrner
Von Braun (the father of the V2 rocket) went to work for
NASA and was instrumental in the launch of the Saturn 5
rocket. Without his help, it is unlikely America
would have made it into space at all in the 1960's.
