Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobsen is an eye opening read. I was always aware that the United States recruited Nazi scientists following the Second World War, but I never knew the extent. It is far more than Werner von Braun, his rockets and slave labor, and he was bad enough.
Our government actively recruited known war criminals for the sake of what we now call national security. It was more important to produce weapons grade sarin gas ahead of the Soviets than prosecute criminals.
This was morally abhorrent then, and looking back, it is even worse. So many of these programs were unnecessary. The Nixon administration, at great cost, dismantled our biological and chemical weapons. Jacobsen’s book shows how under the guise of national security our government essentially helped Nazis avoid justice. And we are no safer.
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