Operation paperclip
by Annie Jacobsen · first published 2014
63% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Covers how the US recruited Nazi scientists and intelligence officers after WWII, including the links to later programs like MKULTRA. It is the definitive account and a good starting point on the topic.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In the chaos following World War II, the U.S. government faced many difficult decisions, including what to do with the Third Reich's scientific minds. These were the brains behind the Nazis' once-indomitable war machine. So began Operation Paperclip, a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States. Many of these men were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder and slavery. They were also directly responsible for major advances in rocketry, medical treatments, and the U.S. space progr
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Man. Von Braun? That’s not someone to name anything after. Please read Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen. What Von Braun did was beyond horrible so much so to make the death camps look less bad in comparison, which is really saying something. They plowed through people making them death…
on “Von Braun Class Station” ↗Anyone interested in this should learn about Operation Paperclip: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip The US recruited Nazi leadership into science and intelligence positions directly leading to human experimentation like MKULTRA. This is considered…
on “How US Intelligence Agencies Hid Their Most Shameful Experiments” ↗Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America - Really interesting to hear about the atrocities of the Nazis and the need of the Americans that they would actively recruit war…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite history books?” ↗Some of the losers were whisked away to American military bases, and subsequently smuggled back into Germany to stand trial. See Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen.
on “Dr. Mengele, USA Style: Lessons from Human Rights Abuses in America [pdf]” ↗Read this, this year: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333289-operation-paper... which is all about Operation Paperclip. I think it's a decent book. If you end up reading / liking this book, I'd also recommend her book "Nuclear War: A Scenario" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182733784-nuclear-war. Both are well researched,…
on “The Nazi of Oak Park” ↗According to Operation Paperclip [1] part of the motivation for the US investigating weaponized LSD was the fear the Nazis were investigating it. But I'm not sure Nazi use was documented to the extent it was in the US, with the CIA's…
on “The Acid Aesthetic: A Brief History of Psychedelic Design” ↗…into the moon effort?[1][2] That's not even including the sacrifices leading up to it by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., which I'd include in the overall effort[3][4]. [1]- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip [2]- https://amazon.com/Operation-Paperclip-Intelligence-Program-... [3]- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Space_accidents_and_i... [4]- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_ac...
on “Going to the Moon Was Easy Compared to 100UL” ↗See also: Operation Paperclip https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Paperclip-Intelligence-Prog... although that mainly focuses on German military research and production of missles.
on “Scientist on Japan's atomic bomb program tells his story (1995) [video]” ↗