Ruskies have rockets!
Can avuncular Nazi
Save us…? How awkward.
Werner von Braun and his team were approved to be shipped to the US under Operation Paperclip 73 years ago today because the US government reeeeaaallly wanted rockets, especially if the Russians had them, and they didn’t much care who gave them to them.
While it’s a matter of debate just how Nazi he was, it’s undeniable that ol’ Werner was decidedly shifty about it. For example, he lied about the year he signed up (1937, not 1939) and he claimed he only wore the SS uniform once, during a photo op with Himmler. (Other SS members claimed otherwise.) And it’s undeniable that he used slave labor to build his V-2 rockets and that more people died building those damned things than from having them launched at them.
But he seemed really sorry about it and space is cool.
“I aim at the stars, but sometimes I hit London.” – Mort Sahl
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