Operation Paperclip: The Nazi Scientists of America

Operation Paperclip Authorization Memo

This memorandum from Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson sought presidential approval to formalize Operation Paperclip—the covert program to recruit German and Austrian scientists following World War II. The document proposed expanding the program to include 800-1,000 specialists, allowing their families to immigrate, and relaxing the strict military custody arrangements that had governed the scientists since V-E Day. Notably, the memo stipulates that persons with "Nazi or militaristic records" should be excluded from the program—a provision that would later prove controversial when evidence emerged that several recruited scientists had their backgrounds sanitized to circumvent this very requirement. The memo was approved by the State, War, and Navy Departments and carried the endorsement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, representing a unified government effort to secure German technical expertise before it could fall into Soviet hands during the emerging Cold War.