Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America

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Little, Brown, Feb 11, 2014 - Science - 592 pages

The “remarkable” story of America's secret post-WWII science programs (The Boston Globe), from the New York Times bestselling author of Area 51

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 program. Was Operation Paperclip a moral outrage, or did it help America win the Cold War?

Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, colleagues, and interrogators, and with access to German archival documents (including previously unseen papers made available by direct descendants of the Third Reich's ranking members), files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and dossiers discovered in government archives and at Harvard University, Annie Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into a startling, complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secret of the twentieth century.

In this definitive, controversial look at one of America's most strategic, and disturbing, government programs, Jacobsen shows just how dark government can get in the name of national security.

"Harrowing...How Dr. Strangelove came to America and thrived, told in graphic detail." —Kirkus Reviews
 

Contents

Cover
Destruction
The Hunters and the Hunted
Liberation
The Captured and Their Interrogators
Part II
Hitlers Doctors
Black White and Gray
Downfall
Truth Serum
In the Dark Shadows
Limelight
Legacy
What Lasts?
Afterword
Photos

Hitlers Chemists
Hired or Hanged
The Ticking Clock
Total War of Apocalyptic Proportions
Chemical Menace
Hall of Mirrors
ANNIE JACOBSEN
Discover More
Author Interviews and Bibliography
Reading Group Guide
Praise for Annie Jacobsens Operation Paperclip
Science at Any Price

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About the author (2014)

Annie Jacobsen is the author of the national bestsellers Area 51Operation Paperclip, and Surprise, Kill, Vanish, the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain, and Phenomena. She was a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine. She is a graduate of Princeton University and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.

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