Operation Paperclip was a secret
United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former
Nazi Germany to the US for government employment after the
end of World War II in Europe, between 1945 and 1959; several were confirmed to be former members of the
Nazi Party, including the
SS or the
SA.
The effort began in earnest in 1945, as the Allies advanced into Germany and discovered a wealth of scientific talent and advanced research that had contributed to Germany's wartime technological advancements. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff officially established
Operation Overcast (operations "Overcast" and "Paperclip" were related, and the terms are often used interchangeably) on July 20, 1945, with the dual aims of leveraging German expertise for the ongoing war effort against Japan and to bolster US postwar military research. The operation, conducted by the
Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), was largely actioned by special agents of the
US Army's
Counterintelligence Corps (CIC). Many selected scientists were involved in the Nazi rocket program, aviation, or chemical/biological warfare. The
Soviet Union in the following year conducted a similar program, called
Operation Osoaviakhim, that emphasized many of the same fields of research.
en.wikipedia.org