10 Secrets of Nazi Scientists Used as Pawns in The Cold War Arms Race

10 Secrets of Nazi Scientists Used as Pawns in The Cold War Arms Race

Larry Holzwarth - December 13, 2017

10 Secrets of Nazi Scientists Used as Pawns in The Cold War Arms Race
The Pentagon under construction in 1942, By 1944 the Offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were there. Wikipedia

The Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA)

The United States Joint Chiefs of Staff initiated what became Operation Paperclip in the late spring of 1945, and late that summer formed the JIOA to oversee the program. It was formed as a subcommittee of the already extant Joint Intelligence Committee and was approved by President Harry Truman with the caveat that those who had been active members of the Nazi Party were not to be included in the program. As the identification process evolved the JIOA realized that many of the leading scientific specialists targeted by Paperclip were Party members of long standing.

The JIOA and the military intelligence agencies whose officers manned it created dossiers which either denied Nazi membership or mitigated it by designating it to have been forced. Membership in the SS by several of the German recruits was simply stricken from the records whenever possible, or acknowledged and falsely explained if there was photographic evidence of recruits appearing in SS uniform.

Participation in war crimes, either passively or actively, was also eliminated from the dossiers prepared by the JIOA for the desired recruits. The JIOA was abetted in this work by British Intelligence, who conducted many of the initial interviews and assisted in creating fictional histories, thereby keeping American hands clean.

In addition to the day to day oversight of Paperclip, the JIOA was responsible for the collection of data as it was uncovered in Germany, again working alongside their British counterparts. Scientific and industrial information from German companies was collected, analyzed, classified, and distributed according to JIOA directives.

The JIOA remained in operation until it was finally shutdown by the Pentagon during the Kennedy administration. Nearly all of the dossiers collected on the German recruits during Operation Paperclip were transferred to the National Archives, with some notable exceptions. The dossier for Wernher Von Braun was not released.

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