7 ms·

The even wilder thing is that the CIA actively hired former Nazis (and relocated them and their families) in Operation Paperclip after the war to aid in Cold Wa

The even wilder thing is that the CIA actively hired former Nazis (and relocated them and their families) in Operation Paperclip after the war to aid in Cold War operations... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

dnissley 2y ago
It's not really all that wild when you consider that they were hired for their impressive achievements in various fields and not their loyalty to the nazi party.
- tmiku 2y ago
  I don't think he's asserting they brought in Nazis for the fun of having them around. But it's surprising that while heightened ties to the Nazis would disqualify you from immigration eligibility, the most secretive circles of the state (and ones highly acquainted with Nazi brutality) were actively recruiting these people. Shows how deep the anti-Soviet derangement ran.
  - zer8k 2y ago
    Derangement? Stalin was extremely suspicious of the west and even went so far as to accuse of us collaborating with Hitler himself. Not only that, the Soviet regime was excessively brutal. One of the worst in history despite not being mentioned much in modern history books. The treatment of captives during wartime, the Eastern Bloc in total, etc. While not a primary source "Soviet War Crimes" has a massive Wikipedia entry detailing just how bad the soviets were. At least related to WW2 alone we can look to how their treatment of the Polish was after pushing Germany out. They murdered Finnish civilians en masse during raids. Further, their deportation campaigns were enough to make most period despots blush. To believe that anti-Soviet sentiment was "derangement" is extremely delusional.
    - FredPret 2y ago
      They also had / have very deep spy networks of socialist sympathizers stealing secrets, including huge ones like plans for The Bomb. A significant amount of Soviet military “research” was done in the West.
- 0x12312812 2y ago
  That applies to the superb rocket scientists. Others were hired for their expertise as spies, secret police and worse: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/in-cold-war-us-spy-agencies-used-1000-nazis.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/in-cold-war-us-spy-age... "Some spies for the United States had worked at the highest levels for the Nazis. One SS officer, Otto von Bolschwing, was a mentor and top aide to Adolf Eichmann, architect of the “Final Solution,” and wrote policy papers on how to terrorize Jews."
  - 0x1231246 2y ago
    The second sentence was supposed to mean: "hired for their expertise as spies, and despite having been in the secret police or worse". If that slip is the reason for the downvotes, fine. Otherwise, blame the NYT.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
  In such a state, it's hard to be "respected in your field" unless you publicly pledge loyalty to the ruling party. This does not mean that all such people were all apolitical, just that their motives and outlook will vary. And that for people who were prominent when the Nazis came to power, there likely wasn't much middle ground between "leave the country, go far away" and "join the party".
  - the_gorilla 2y ago
    This also applies to the US to a lesser extent. If you want to work in academia, there's a very strict subset of ideas you're allowed to even consider.
    - SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
      To which "ruling party" do you have to pledge loyalty to, in order to work in academia? An example of loyalty tests in current US politics did come to my mind, but it wasn't that one.
    - goatlover 2y ago
      Academia is broad, what strict subset of ideas would apply to everyone in the US?
      - the_gorilla 2y ago
        "Denial" crimes. There's at least 3 of them involving race, gender, and religion. Good luck getting funding or even keeping your shitty job if you commit any of these cardinal sins.
- debit-freak 2y ago
  I think what people find "wild" is likely the blatant contradictions in rhetoric between valuing humans and valuing "impressive achievements". The US and the NAZIs are merely the best examples of valuing the latter over the former. At least, for now. Notably, nobody in this entire comment section has been able to articulate how the space race has improved humanity more than equivalent efforts that focus on human quality of life, like implementing a public healthcare system. Whitey On The Moon rings just as true now as it did 60 years ago. Political posturing that happened to spawn technological development is a poor excuse for lack of coherent values. The fact that we achieved something that is truly admirable does not excuse for the general lack of giving-a-shit-about-humans that surrounds national politics. You know what else would be admirable? Taking care of our neighbors even if they don't contribute to the GDP.
- underlipton 2y ago
  It becomes again wild when you remember that the Cold War was only "necessary" because of US antagonism post-war. This isn't passing judgment on Soviet policies, only a recognition that conflict might not have been so heated if we'd learned our lesson from how the disintegration of US-Japanese relations had drawn us into the previous war. Essentially, the US seems to have a habit of being "forced" to ally with undesirable elements after some lapse in geopolitical awareness or effort leads to hostilities (sound familiar?).
  - FredPret 2y ago
    Are you saying the Soviets took the “kumbaya” approach to communism and if only the US chilled out, there would’ve been no conflict? Surely you cannot believe that?
    - underlipton 2y ago
      No, because that's a straw man. The idea is that the Soviets were not looking to be in a half-century-long dick-measuring contest with the US, with the fate of the biosphere in the balance, and that the impetus for much of their expansionism and antagonism was the selfsame posturing that we claimed was our response to their antagonism. This is tantamount to the stance that Henry A. Wallace - the man who would have been president after FDR's death if not for the DNC pulling a Kamala at the 1944 convention - took (even if he walked that back amidst McCarthyism). I'm not saying that the US and Soviets ever would have been strict allies like we became with Japan, but a calmer entry to the post-war period might have cooled nerves and prevented the worst excesses of the Cold War. Do they seek the bomb? Do they ruin Afghanistan? Do we have flashpoints in Korea, Vietnam, South America? Are we still dealing with the negative ramifications of these events, decades on? And, in this hypothetical alternate history, did we have to employ and grant amnesty to literal Nazis to counter Soviets threatened by the Truman Doctrine? We can't know, but surely it's believable. Unless you think that mid-century communists were evil and irrational (and I suppose that you could (not me)).
  - HideousKojima 2y ago
    >It becomes again wild when you remember that the Cold War was only "necessary" because of US antagonism post-war. Only if you ignore communist antagonism in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Up to and including their own allies when they gave their citizens a little too much freedom. I have several books in Czech on my shelf with a copyright date of 1968, a year in which far more books were published than years prior, I wonder why they share that year?
- Insanity 2y ago
  Yes, they were hired _despite_ their loyalty (and sometimes despite their war crimes). But not just because of their 'impressive achievements' during their time as Nazi scientists, part of why they were hired was because the US was afraid to lose them to the Soviet Union based purely on _potential achievements_. Some scientists even played this as a card to get hired by the US.
- renewiltord 2y ago
  If you take the Kolmogorov Option you’d better be Kolmogorov. Besides the creature being ended was Nazism, not its components. Some of its component individuals had to be ended (and if necessary, humiliated) to end it but that was the means.
- aguaviva 2y ago
  But it wasn't simply for their achievements that so many of these guys (many of whose achievements weren't all that impressive, actually) were hired. Rather, it was because they were perceived (by virtue of their Nazi credentials) as being solidly anti-communist, and hence, "reliable". That's where post-WW2 history starts to get wild again.
palmfacehn 2y ago
The Soviets did the same. Wernher Von Braun was famously recruited despite his past. Top National Socialists were not only recruited for their skills, but also to deny their expertise from the opposing sphere. Many of the common soldiers and officers who were not in the same demand joined the Foreign Legion. Some of those continued on in Africa to become mercenaries. Otto Skorzeny allegedly worked for the Mossad after working with Nasser. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny#Alleged_recruitment_by_Mossad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny#Alleged_recruitm...
- machinestops 2y ago
  Famous to the point of a song being written: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro https://youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro
- aguaviva 2y ago
  The Soviets did the same. And perhaps on larger scale in terms of raw headcount. But significantly, there were apparently no "rock stars" like Gehlen, von Braun, Skorzeny or Barbie in their pack. Nor did any of these characters end up (like the first two) leading mission-critical organizations/programs up until the 1960s.
lupusreal 2y ago
Even in post-war West Germany, "denazification", e.g. excluding ex-nazis from roles in the new German society, was a failed policy that got discontinued after a few years.
- immibis 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - lupusreal 2y ago
    That's hyperbolic nonsense. Germany today is a liberal democracy.
- Yeul 2y ago
  If memory serves the entire West German intelligence apparatus was run by ex Nazis. The BRD was like that famous Fawlty Towers sketch. "Don't mention the war!".
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - RalfWausE 2y ago
    Well, if you look into the whole ordeal regarding the planned ban of the NPD a few years ago, the whole NSU ordeal and the things regarding the AfD i would guess not much has changed...
    - immibis 2y ago
      Odd that you're allowed to say this but I'm not. Is it because I mentioned the relationship between Germany and Israel?
      - RalfWausE 2y ago
        Huh? I mean, even major news outlets in germany (even government owned) reported about the... ehm... "interesting" relationship of the various intelligence agencies and the far right... Just to be curious, what did you write about Israel and Germany?
yonaguska 2y ago
This is even wilder than that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salomon_Morel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salomon_Morel
zer8k 2y ago
Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to execute people with knowledge that would otherwise be useful to the enemy. If we didn't, the soviets would. There was a lot to learn from them that didn't have to do with their prior allegiances that proved valuable for weapons development, spycraft, and space exploration.
waihtis 2y ago
It's only wild if you're incredibly naive and divide the world into "good" and "bad" guys. Before someone thinks I'm a nazi apologist, I want to clarify this is about making a point of the world being extremely grey, even in areas where you perceive the good guys to operate.
ocschwar 2y ago
Makes more sense when you realize the purpose of Nazi hunting wasn't really to catch enough of them to establish some level of justice. It was to keep them closeted so they would not attempt a comeback. Before getting kidnapped to Israel, Eichmann was more than ready to be the spearhead of a resurgent Nazi movement.
- palmfacehn 2y ago
  I'll ask for citations not because I am skeptical, but because I find the topic interesting. Thanks.
  - ocschwar 2y ago
    The most exemplary story was the killing of Herbert Kukurs. West Germany was about to apply a statute of limitations to war crimes, which would have emboldened Nazis to come out of the woodwork. To the Mossad found a Nazi and beat him to death.
lenerdenator 2y ago
That's not exactly a wild thing; it was no secret at all that Werner von Braun was at the heart of the Apollo program while it was happening. The Soviets and British did the same thing, IIRC. The lesson is simple: if you're going to lose a war, lose a war as a guy who is good at something, because the new management will be a lot less likely to hold crimes against humanity against you.
- sybercecurity 2y ago
  Even mentioned in a darkly humorous tone in the 1968 movie "Ice Station Zebra" (cold war thriller). The character played by Patrick McGoohan has a line: " The Russians put our camera made by our German scientists and your film made by your German scientists into their satellite made by their German scientists."
- buildsjets 2y ago
  I mean, Tom Lehrer had a whole song about it and everything. It was on the radio quite a bit at the time. Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun, A man whose allegiance Is ruled by expedience. Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown, "Ha, Nazi, Schmazi, " says Wernher von Braun. http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Humorous_Songs/Wernher-Von-Braun.phtml http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Humorous_Songs/Wernher-Von-...
  - dllthomas 2y ago
    https://tomlehrersongs.com/wernher-von-braun/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/wernher-von-braun/ is perhaps a better link.
    - buildsjets 2y ago
      No, not really. It doesn’t display the lyrics, and there is no entertaining video of Tom Lehrer.
      - dllthomas 2y ago
        It does display the lyrics w/ one click, also the sheet music, has multiple recordings, and is actually Lehrer's site. It's true that there's no video.
Insanity 2y ago
Read this, this year: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333289-operation-paperclip https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333289-operation-paper... which is all about Operation Paperclip. I think it's a decent book. If you end up reading / liking this book, I'd also recommend her book "Nuclear War: A Scenario" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182733784-nuclear-war https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182733784-nuclear-war. Both are well researched, the second one (Nuclear War) was a more entertaining read, in a morbid kind of way.
drewcoo 2y ago
See also Japanese Unit 731. War criminals make good weapons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
- no_exit 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Cross_(Japanese_company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Cross_(Japanese_company) > Green Cross was founded in 1950 as Japan's first commercial blood bank and became a diversified international pharmaceutical company producing ethical drugs for delivery or administration by doctors and healthcare workers. Its founders included war criminals such as Masaji Kitano who performed torture and experiments on humans in the Japanese military's notorious Unit 731 during World War II. Also serving as a consultant for the company was Murray Sanders, the American officer and physician who had petitioned for Kitano's acquittal after the war. > In the late 1980s, Green Cross and Takeshi Abe were at the center of a scandal in which up to 3,000 Japanese people contracted HIV through the distribution and use of blood products which were known to be unsafe.
  - labster 2y ago
    Are those two facts supposed to be related? I doubt the same uncharged war criminals were still running things 40 years later.
SirAllCaps 2y ago
Wildest case I've heard of is related to another renowned intelligence agency: https://archive.md/WwclV https://archive.md/WwclV
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

dnissley 2y ago

It's not really all that wild when you consider that they were hired for their impressive achievements in various fields and not their loyalty to the nazi party.

tmiku 2y ago
I don't think he's asserting they brought in Nazis for the fun of having them around. But it's surprising that while heightened ties to the Nazis would disqualify you from immigration eligibility, the most secretive circles of the state (and ones highly acquainted with Nazi brutality) were actively recruiting these people. Shows how deep the anti-Soviet derangement ran.
- zer8k 2y ago
  Derangement? Stalin was extremely suspicious of the west and even went so far as to accuse of us collaborating with Hitler himself. Not only that, the Soviet regime was excessively brutal. One of the worst in history despite not being mentioned much in modern history books. The treatment of captives during wartime, the Eastern Bloc in total, etc. While not a primary source "Soviet War Crimes" has a massive Wikipedia entry detailing just how bad the soviets were. At least related to WW2 alone we can look to how their treatment of the Polish was after pushing Germany out. They murdered Finnish civilians en masse during raids. Further, their deportation campaigns were enough to make most period despots blush. To believe that anti-Soviet sentiment was "derangement" is extremely delusional.
  - FredPret 2y ago
    They also had / have very deep spy networks of socialist sympathizers stealing secrets, including huge ones like plans for The Bomb. A significant amount of Soviet military “research” was done in the West.
0x12312812 2y ago
That applies to the superb rocket scientists. Others were hired for their expertise as spies, secret police and worse: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/in-cold-war-us-spy-agencies-used-1000-nazis.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/in-cold-war-us-spy-age... "Some spies for the United States had worked at the highest levels for the Nazis. One SS officer, Otto von Bolschwing, was a mentor and top aide to Adolf Eichmann, architect of the “Final Solution,” and wrote policy papers on how to terrorize Jews."
- 0x1231246 2y ago
  The second sentence was supposed to mean: "hired for their expertise as spies, and despite having been in the secret police or worse". If that slip is the reason for the downvotes, fine. Otherwise, blame the NYT.
SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
In such a state, it's hard to be "respected in your field" unless you publicly pledge loyalty to the ruling party. This does not mean that all such people were all apolitical, just that their motives and outlook will vary. And that for people who were prominent when the Nazis came to power, there likely wasn't much middle ground between "leave the country, go far away" and "join the party".
- the_gorilla 2y ago
  This also applies to the US to a lesser extent. If you want to work in academia, there's a very strict subset of ideas you're allowed to even consider.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
    To which "ruling party" do you have to pledge loyalty to, in order to work in academia? An example of loyalty tests in current US politics did come to my mind, but it wasn't that one.
  - goatlover 2y ago
    Academia is broad, what strict subset of ideas would apply to everyone in the US?
    - the_gorilla 2y ago
      "Denial" crimes. There's at least 3 of them involving race, gender, and religion. Good luck getting funding or even keeping your shitty job if you commit any of these cardinal sins.
debit-freak 2y ago
I think what people find "wild" is likely the blatant contradictions in rhetoric between valuing humans and valuing "impressive achievements". The US and the NAZIs are merely the best examples of valuing the latter over the former. At least, for now. Notably, nobody in this entire comment section has been able to articulate how the space race has improved humanity more than equivalent efforts that focus on human quality of life, like implementing a public healthcare system. Whitey On The Moon rings just as true now as it did 60 years ago. Political posturing that happened to spawn technological development is a poor excuse for lack of coherent values. The fact that we achieved something that is truly admirable does not excuse for the general lack of giving-a-shit-about-humans that surrounds national politics. You know what else would be admirable? Taking care of our neighbors even if they don't contribute to the GDP.
underlipton 2y ago
It becomes again wild when you remember that the Cold War was only "necessary" because of US antagonism post-war. This isn't passing judgment on Soviet policies, only a recognition that conflict might not have been so heated if we'd learned our lesson from how the disintegration of US-Japanese relations had drawn us into the previous war. Essentially, the US seems to have a habit of being "forced" to ally with undesirable elements after some lapse in geopolitical awareness or effort leads to hostilities (sound familiar?).
- FredPret 2y ago
  Are you saying the Soviets took the “kumbaya” approach to communism and if only the US chilled out, there would’ve been no conflict? Surely you cannot believe that?
  - underlipton 2y ago
    No, because that's a straw man. The idea is that the Soviets were not looking to be in a half-century-long dick-measuring contest with the US, with the fate of the biosphere in the balance, and that the impetus for much of their expansionism and antagonism was the selfsame posturing that we claimed was our response to their antagonism. This is tantamount to the stance that Henry A. Wallace - the man who would have been president after FDR's death if not for the DNC pulling a Kamala at the 1944 convention - took (even if he walked that back amidst McCarthyism). I'm not saying that the US and Soviets ever would have been strict allies like we became with Japan, but a calmer entry to the post-war period might have cooled nerves and prevented the worst excesses of the Cold War. Do they seek the bomb? Do they ruin Afghanistan? Do we have flashpoints in Korea, Vietnam, South America? Are we still dealing with the negative ramifications of these events, decades on? And, in this hypothetical alternate history, did we have to employ and grant amnesty to literal Nazis to counter Soviets threatened by the Truman Doctrine? We can't know, but surely it's believable. Unless you think that mid-century communists were evil and irrational (and I suppose that you could (not me)).
- HideousKojima 2y ago
  >It becomes again wild when you remember that the Cold War was only "necessary" because of US antagonism post-war. Only if you ignore communist antagonism in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Up to and including their own allies when they gave their citizens a little too much freedom. I have several books in Czech on my shelf with a copyright date of 1968, a year in which far more books were published than years prior, I wonder why they share that year?
Insanity 2y ago
Yes, they were hired _despite_ their loyalty (and sometimes despite their war crimes). But not just because of their 'impressive achievements' during their time as Nazi scientists, part of why they were hired was because the US was afraid to lose them to the Soviet Union based purely on _potential achievements_. Some scientists even played this as a card to get hired by the US.
renewiltord 2y ago
If you take the Kolmogorov Option you’d better be Kolmogorov. Besides the creature being ended was Nazism, not its components. Some of its component individuals had to be ended (and if necessary, humiliated) to end it but that was the means.
aguaviva 2y ago
But it wasn't simply for their achievements that so many of these guys (many of whose achievements weren't all that impressive, actually) were hired. Rather, it was because they were perceived (by virtue of their Nazi credentials) as being solidly anti-communist, and hence, "reliable". That's where post-WW2 history starts to get wild again.

palmfacehn 2y ago

The Soviets did the same. Wernher Von Braun was famously recruited despite his past. Top National Socialists were not only recruited for their skills, but also to deny their expertise from the opposing sphere. Many of the common soldiers and officers who were not in the same demand joined the Foreign Legion. Some of those continued on in Africa to become mercenaries. Otto Skorzeny allegedly worked for the Mossad after working with Nasser. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny#Alleged_recruitment_by_Mossad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny#Alleged_recruitm...

machinestops 2y ago
Famous to the point of a song being written: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro https://youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro
aguaviva 2y ago
The Soviets did the same. And perhaps on larger scale in terms of raw headcount. But significantly, there were apparently no "rock stars" like Gehlen, von Braun, Skorzeny or Barbie in their pack. Nor did any of these characters end up (like the first two) leading mission-critical organizations/programs up until the 1960s.

lupusreal 2y ago

Even in post-war West Germany, "denazification", e.g. excluding ex-nazis from roles in the new German society, was a failed policy that got discontinued after a few years.

immibis 2y ago
[flagged]
- lupusreal 2y ago
  That's hyperbolic nonsense. Germany today is a liberal democracy.
Yeul 2y ago
If memory serves the entire West German intelligence apparatus was run by ex Nazis. The BRD was like that famous Fawlty Towers sketch. "Don't mention the war!".
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- RalfWausE 2y ago
  Well, if you look into the whole ordeal regarding the planned ban of the NPD a few years ago, the whole NSU ordeal and the things regarding the AfD i would guess not much has changed...
  - immibis 2y ago
    Odd that you're allowed to say this but I'm not. Is it because I mentioned the relationship between Germany and Israel?
    - RalfWausE 2y ago
      Huh? I mean, even major news outlets in germany (even government owned) reported about the... ehm... "interesting" relationship of the various intelligence agencies and the far right... Just to be curious, what did you write about Israel and Germany?

yonaguska 2y ago

This is even wilder than that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salomon_Morel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salomon_Morel

zer8k 2y ago

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to execute people with knowledge that would otherwise be useful to the enemy. If we didn't, the soviets would. There was a lot to learn from them that didn't have to do with their prior allegiances that proved valuable for weapons development, spycraft, and space exploration.

waihtis 2y ago

It's only wild if you're incredibly naive and divide the world into "good" and "bad" guys. Before someone thinks I'm a nazi apologist, I want to clarify this is about making a point of the world being extremely grey, even in areas where you perceive the good guys to operate.

ocschwar 2y ago

Makes more sense when you realize the purpose of Nazi hunting wasn't really to catch enough of them to establish some level of justice. It was to keep them closeted so they would not attempt a comeback. Before getting kidnapped to Israel, Eichmann was more than ready to be the spearhead of a resurgent Nazi movement.

palmfacehn 2y ago
I'll ask for citations not because I am skeptical, but because I find the topic interesting. Thanks.
- ocschwar 2y ago
  The most exemplary story was the killing of Herbert Kukurs. West Germany was about to apply a statute of limitations to war crimes, which would have emboldened Nazis to come out of the woodwork. To the Mossad found a Nazi and beat him to death.

lenerdenator 2y ago

That's not exactly a wild thing; it was no secret at all that Werner von Braun was at the heart of the Apollo program while it was happening. The Soviets and British did the same thing, IIRC. The lesson is simple: if you're going to lose a war, lose a war as a guy who is good at something, because the new management will be a lot less likely to hold crimes against humanity against you.

sybercecurity 2y ago
Even mentioned in a darkly humorous tone in the 1968 movie "Ice Station Zebra" (cold war thriller). The character played by Patrick McGoohan has a line: " The Russians put our camera made by our German scientists and your film made by your German scientists into their satellite made by their German scientists."
buildsjets 2y ago
I mean, Tom Lehrer had a whole song about it and everything. It was on the radio quite a bit at the time. Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun, A man whose allegiance Is ruled by expedience. Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown, "Ha, Nazi, Schmazi, " says Wernher von Braun. http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Humorous_Songs/Wernher-Von-Braun.phtml http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Humorous_Songs/Wernher-Von-...
- dllthomas 2y ago
  https://tomlehrersongs.com/wernher-von-braun/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/wernher-von-braun/ is perhaps a better link.
  - buildsjets 2y ago
    No, not really. It doesn’t display the lyrics, and there is no entertaining video of Tom Lehrer.
    - dllthomas 2y ago
      It does display the lyrics w/ one click, also the sheet music, has multiple recordings, and is actually Lehrer's site. It's true that there's no video.

Insanity 2y ago

Read this, this year: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333289-operation-paperclip https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333289-operation-paper... which is all about Operation Paperclip. I think it's a decent book. If you end up reading / liking this book, I'd also recommend her book "Nuclear War: A Scenario" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182733784-nuclear-war https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182733784-nuclear-war. Both are well researched, the second one (Nuclear War) was a more entertaining read, in a morbid kind of way.

drewcoo 2y ago

See also Japanese Unit 731. War criminals make good weapons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

no_exit 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Cross_(Japanese_company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Cross_(Japanese_company) > Green Cross was founded in 1950 as Japan's first commercial blood bank and became a diversified international pharmaceutical company producing ethical drugs for delivery or administration by doctors and healthcare workers. Its founders included war criminals such as Masaji Kitano who performed torture and experiments on humans in the Japanese military's notorious Unit 731 during World War II. Also serving as a consultant for the company was Murray Sanders, the American officer and physician who had petitioned for Kitano's acquittal after the war. > In the late 1980s, Green Cross and Takeshi Abe were at the center of a scandal in which up to 3,000 Japanese people contracted HIV through the distribution and use of blood products which were known to be unsafe.
- labster 2y ago
  Are those two facts supposed to be related? I doubt the same uncharged war criminals were still running things 40 years later.

SirAllCaps 2y ago

Wildest case I've heard of is related to another renowned intelligence agency: https://archive.md/WwclV https://archive.md/WwclV

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]