Today in History

November 16, 1945

Operation Paperclip

World War II was over, but the Cold War was beginning to simmer. The United States seized on the opportunity to grab the technology lead in rocket design and development. On November 16, 1945, the first group of German scientists from Nazi Germany arrived in the United States to begin their new roles as United States scientists, among them Wernher von Braun. U.S. law officially prohibited Nazis from immigrating to America, but the war records of these scientists were expunged. The program was justified on the grounds that if the United States failed to secure a position for the scientists, the Soviet Union would do so. The government employed most of the former German scientists at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico.

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