May 22, 1945: Operation Paperclip begins. On May 22, 1945, Major
Robert B. Staver transmitted a telegram to the Pentagon
stressing the need for the U.S. government to initiate an
evacuation of select German scientists, at the time mostly men
involved in the German rocket program. This took place
approximately two weeks after Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War
II, although the project and the basic idea of
interviewing/interrogating German scientists was conceived
during the war. The name Operation Overcast was designated in
the summer of 1945 until it was replaced by the better-known
name “Operation Paperclip”; the project formally began in August
of 1945 with two objectives: to learn more about advances made
by German scientists and researchers during the Nazi era, and to
apply these advances and the minds of German scientists and
researchers to achieve American goals. World War II begot
significant advances in technology, as bloody and brutal wars
are wont to do; on the German side, specifically, scientists