Operation Paperclip

[Monte Davis]

"These were the brains behind the Nazis' once-indomitable war machine..."

Well, primarily the brains behind an ineffective if scary last-ditch
"wonder weapon" that began operations after Germany's defeat was
inevitable. (Paperclip eventually involved nearly 2000 German technologists
in aeronautics, electronics, synthetic fuels and other fields, but the
Peenemunde crew was the only team targeted and imported _en bloc_ with a
coherent body of expertise and experience.)

"...a startling, complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government
secret of the twentieth century."

Assuming that by "jealously guarded" you mean "not known to people who
ignored dozens of news reports and books from 1946 on, not to mention
Wernher von Braun's nefarious talks to top-secret Chamber Of Commerce
luncheons in New Mexico, Texas and Alabama."

I'm quoting the Hachette publicist's blurb, which may not fairly represent
Jacobsen's book. But the former certainly makes the latter sound like yet
another faux-"now it can be told" expose. As I've argued here before, the
real Paperclip-WvB story is not

"Look how They kept a deep dark secret from innocent, trusting Americans"

-- which is simply, provably false -- but

"Look how smoothly we -- government, press and public together -- replaced
the 'Nazi wizards of war' narrative with the 'shiny science defends us from
Commies' narrative."


On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 10:48 PM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/annie-jacobsen/operation-paperclip/9780316221047/
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