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Questionable Morality

The final and most debated conspiracy regarding Operation Paperclip was the questionable morality. According to HR Perry, “Operation Paperclip seemed to value science and military development over morality” (Perry, Holly R. 23). The morality of the whole operation was extremely controversial; the allowing of known Nazi war criminals into the United States raised multitudes of questions. One of these questions was if and how was the government able to bring these criminals into the US in the first place. According to MJ Neufeld “...these evasions of the law appear to have been approved by the Cabinet and probably Truman himself” (Neufeld, Michael J.  201). Evidence has been found that even potentially the President of the United States was willing to be more “...focused on how valuable these German transferees were to their scientific and technological development, disregarding how dangerous they could be at the same time” (Perry, Holly R. 17). The depth of the deception has been linked to many different levels of the US government. “Almost all of the engineers and scientists sent to America under Overcast and Paperclip were taken without having gone through denazification trials…” (Neufeld, Michael J. 201). One of the many allowed into America without any proper background checks was “…Herbert Wagner (1900 – 1982)...” (3). “Wagner created the first German guided missile used in combat during WWII, the HS-293” (3). “Wagner had been a passionate member of five different Nazi organizations. This meant that the United States’ military and government agencies and officials had to keep Wagner secret…” (3). Wagner was a devout member of the Nazis, but because of his creation of the HS-293 missile he was allowed into the US with no question. Another man allowed in with heinous crimes was “Kurt Blome (1894 – 1969)...Blome would conduct experiments on concentration camp prisoners during WWII. In these experiments, he would infect them with cancer…His biological warfare institute conducted lethal experiments on 1,700 prisoners at Mauthausen Concentration Camp…. In 1943, Blome dropped mosquitos from airplanes in order to spread malaria to certain populations” (14). Even though “Blome confessed to carrying out countless cruel medical experiments when he was interrogated U.S. Officials got him acquitted…Blome’s work for the U.S. Army Chemical Corps involving biological and chemical warfare that is still classified to this day” (14-15). These are just two examples of the Nazi war criminals that had their pasts covered up so they could be admitted into the US. “The United States focused on how valuable these German transferees were to their scientific and technological development, disregarding how dangerous they could be at the same time” (17). This left many thinking, if the government was willing to cover up the atrocious pasts of these criminal scientist; what else could the government be keeping from the public.  

Conclusion

Even “The sudden end of that war the next month did not stop the program, however…” (Neufeld, Michael J. 198). Operation Paperclip allowed great advances in military and medicine fields that are still used today. Without Operation Paperclip, the America of today might have been in a different place. Furthermore, “Project Paperclip continued unabated into the early 1950s and, under various cover names, for twenty years thereafter” (Neufeld 202). Some of the work from Operation Paperclip is still classified to this day. With all the evidence presented it is clear that Operation Paperclip did happen and was influenced heavily by Nazi information.

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