What is the verification status of this claim?

This claim is currently marked as "CONFIRMED". The verification is based on 2 primary sources and 2 total sources reviewed by the They Knew community.

Who originally made this claim?

This claim was made by Daniel Ellsberg, Military Analyst / Whistleblower, on or around 1945-09-01.

How many sources support this claim?

There are 2 total sources associated with this claim, of which 2 are primary sources (court documents, FOIA releases, official records).

The US secretly recruited 1,600+ Nazi scientists, whitewashing their war crimes records, in direct violation of Truman's orders — documented evidence

🟢 CONFIRMED

Operation Paperclip (1945-1959) brought over 1,600 German scientists to the US, including rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun (who used slave labor at Mittelbau-Dora) and chemical weapons experts. President Truman explicitly forbade recruiting active Nazis, but the JIOA systematically falsified biographies, destroyed incriminating records, and created clean files — hence 'Paperclip' (referring to paperclips on sanitized files). The program gave the US its space program and biological/chemical weapons capabilities. Roughly half of the recruited scientists had been Nazi Party members. The program remained classified for decades.

The US secretly recruited 1,600+ Nazi scientists, whitewashing their war crimes records, in direct violation of Truman's orders

MIL·September 1, 1945·By Daniel Ellsberg·3.2K upvotes·112 comments

What They Said Was Crazy

“The US government recruited Nazi war criminals and whitewashed their records to exploit their scientific expertise, violating the President's own orders.”

— Daniel EllsbergSeptember 1, 1945Source

📄 The Receipts

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PRIMARYOperation Paperclip (Wikipedia)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

ARTICLEOpen

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PRIMARYHow Operation Paperclip Brought Nazi Scientists to the US (National Geographic)

www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/operati...

ARTICLEOpen

⚖️ The Record, Side by Side

What they said vs. what the evidence shows

What They Said

“These German specialists are being employed under strict military supervision for purposes critical to national security. No war criminals have been recruited.”

— US War Department · Mar 1946

What Actually Happened

PrimaryARTICLE

Operation Paperclip (Wikipedia)

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PrimaryARTICLE

How Operation Paperclip Brought Nazi Scientists to the US (National Geographic)

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🙈 They Laughed At Us

“These German specialists are being employed under strict military supervision for purposes critical to national security. No war criminals have been recruited.”

— US War Department, 1946