Operation Paperclip

The Book in 1 Sentence

Hear the story of the inevitable desire and need to take on the worst of human beings to support the "Continued security of United States."

Brief Review

Annie Jacobsen has an amazing research method that tells an outrageous and disturbing story. This book is full of the search and defense of atrocities by those who want to condemn and condone those who perpetrated the worst of events in WWII. Learn about the way the US government was manipulated by German scientist and US military leadership to bring war criminals to the US in the name of "Protecting the US from the next war."

Why I Read this book

Operation Paperclip is something I have known about from a long time and seeing this cover and having read a book by Annie Jacobsen previously, I knew that this would be more than informative.

In-Depth Review

There is an insane amount of data of the science, death, finances, history, and complete disregard of war crimes is crazy. I am dead serious about this. If you ask my wife about me talking about this book, you'd know that the litany of absolute disregard of the direct crimes that these scientist did in an effort to bring them to the United States for "The security of the country" is honestly something I think about way too much. The argument about the means justify the end is the complete point of what this book is about.

To tell this story in as short as possible, a lot of our technology that we use EVERY DAY got it's initial start from Nazi scientist who used slave labor to test their science on human subjects. This science that we use? flying in airplanes, space travel, general medicine items, etc. Its disgusting what they did and how they lied about it to get contracts from the US. I applaud the people who stood their ground in the government to appose this in the face of overwhelming opposition.

To give a little insight into the true crimes of the century, which is almost up: Freezing humans to see if they could revive them, using chemical warfare gases to see the effect, infecting them with god knows what (Some times the actual BLACK PLAGUE) to attempt to cure it.

How my life / behavior / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.

I really think having a philosophy class about the events in this book and others like it so that way the next generation of kids can make informed decisions and know the true history. A great way to challenge us to decide if we feel the means justified the end.

Rating

This book is worth every page, every minutes spent consuming it. If for one reason, for us to appreciate the technology and science we use every day and the sacrifices that came from its development. 9/10. The timeline jumps a bit and gets a little muddled, but the author does a fantastic job of reminding you whom someone is.