If they really wanted to destroy the capability, wouldn't they have to kill the engineers and technicians or at least evacuate them? Just look at history with

If they really wanted to destroy the capability, wouldn't they have to kill the engineers and technicians or at least evacuate them? Just look at history with operation Paperclip where German rocket scientists surrendered to the Allies. Those German scientists formed the core of NASA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip