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Kizzie's avatar

Thank you for sharing. I follow you on TikTok and just found you. I was literally reading Operation Paper clip via Wikipedia to my friend a few hours ago. My mind is waking up.

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Dodo B Bird's avatar

Reinhart Gehlen....when you look how he went from Hitler to CIA to the founding head of west German intelligence....it's amazing.

Germany should have been permanently demilitarized.

And I believe the impact of having a participant in the in Eastern Europe including the Soviet Union including both Ukraine and Russia and the all the fighting on the "Eastern Front" has a lot more to do with today's wars than people want to admit.

When NATO was formed the head of West German Intelligence was a Nazi War Criminal who was adopted and paid by The USA/NATO/WEST GERMANY.

Reinhart Gehlen and Werner Von Braun were 2 of the luckiest Nazi War Criminals to go on the payroll of the United States of America.

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ludwig vogel's avatar

Frankly, Stephanie, your coverage of Paperclip 📎 is a bit basic, and marred by its fragmentary coverage.

Some Paperclip people stayed with the Air Force, others went south with the Army, then some split off to work at NASA, lots went from both sides to the private sector.

Many married Americans and or started new families in the US. I remember talking about a book idea, “Growing up American,” with the daughter of the inventor of the delta wing. It might be fun to try to look some people up and see how many moved back to Germany.

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Andrew Beaton's avatar

Hello Stephine, this is the first bit of yours that I have seen.

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ludwig vogel's avatar

Alex Lippisch invented the delta wing. He worked at Collins Radio, my father worked on Long Island on what is now called control wheel steering, Siegfried Knemeyer worked at Flight Dynamics Lab in Wright Field. (Alex and my father moved back to Germany after they retired.)

Could there be any interest in following these engineers' stories up?

Did you know anyone who had a War Department photo ID describing the bearer as a German scientist?

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Love's avatar

Fascinating. My partner was a military brat. He went to Heidelberg High (we are genx).

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ludwig vogel's avatar

Frankly, Stephanie, your coverage of Paperclip 📎 is a bit basic, and marred by its fragmentary coverage.

Some Paperclip people stayed with the Air Force, others went south with the Army, then some split off to work at NASA, lots went from both sides to the private sector.

Many married Americans and or started new families in the US. I remember talking about a book idea, “Growing up American,” with the daughter of the inventor of the delta wing. It might be fun to try to look some people up and see how many moved back to Germany.

Expand full comment