Our Germans: Project Paperclip and the National Security State by Brian E. Crim (review)

Brian E. Crim's Our Germans: Project Paperclip and the National Security State is a valuable contribution to Cold War scholarship and the history of technology. Crim sleuths through a trove of declassified documents to reveal complex layers of debate about Project Paperclip, the military-led incorporation of German scientists and engineers into the American postwar scene. By describing the absorption of "our Germans" into the national security state or military/civilian apparatus of the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC), the book highlights contentious debates, shifting priorities, increasing pressures for immigration expediency, and other considerations about the past, current, and future capabilities of German-born scientists and engineers.

The moral debate about utilizing "our Germans" is ever-present, from public media to internal State Department resistance. The author demonstrates how moral and ethical considerations about engineers' pasts became secondary considerations amid the obvious military priorities of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union became a far more immediate threat. By showcasing interservice rivalries, departmental infighting, and various strong-arm tactics of military personnel, the book reveals the avenues of tacit or enthusiastic support for Project Paperclip and the lingering resistance and doubts about the "Nazi scientists." The tensions of these debates are fascinating, particularly when questions arise as to the reputation of the "German mind," the future potential of propagandized German "wonder weapons," and the viability of V-2 rocket technology. Crim also explores the contradictory goals of American efforts to obtain the best of German minds while bolstering the capabilities of West Germany, which would depend on thriving centers of research and development. Because the United States recruited thousands of German scientists, Project Paperclip had far-reaching consequences for superpowers and their allied and/or satellite nation-states. Crim examines competing priorities, contradictory goals, and constant infighting among both military and civilian factions. Thus, Our Germans is an interesting case study of the nexus of military and industrial cooperation/competition regarding state-sponsored research and development.

Crim navigates these debates with attention to details, which both enrich the book and complicate the narrative. Although Our Germans is a short book, readers will encounter a demanding collection of code-names, military jargon, and abbreviations of agencies, departments, and organizations. Some readers may become frustrated by the descriptive sections of the book, which include excerpts from military documents. The primary sources affect the readability of the book due to operational language of military or governmental personnel. Other readers, particularly historians of spaceflight, will appreciate the work's treatment of von Braun and his rocket team. The book recognizes von Braun's importance as a public figure associated with "our Germans," yet it explores the larger scope of Paperclip, in which the rocket team played a lesser role compared to other fields, especially aeronautics. Some scholars may wish for an overview of Paperclip that further decenters von Braun, in turn steering readers away from more sensationalistic and popular accounts that expose the alleged Nazi contributions to postwar American science and technology.

In this regard, Crim's arguments may disappoint some scholars. For example, the author asserts that the German wartime research center of Peenemünde served as an influential model during the expansion of the American military-industrial complex (MIC) with its competing interests and shrewd personnel who learned to navigate, chart, and even direct the currents of big science. "Big science knows no ideology," Crim argues (p. 12). Many of the Germans "became a permanent component of the MIC they served, and in no small part, created" (p. 85). Historians may wonder how groups of postwar Germans could so heavily influence a system of military and industrial coordination that originated with the First World War, if not the American Civil War's coordination of industrialists, factories, and weapons specialists. Arguably, the book gives far too much credit to "our Germans," especially the rocket team.

Nevertheless, these criticisms are minor. Our Germans should appeal to many different...