WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.720
In nineteen forty six, more than one hundred German rocket
2
00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:08.240
specialists were gathered at Fort Bliss, Texas, working with captured
3
00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:11.720
V two missiles. At the center of that group was
4
00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:15.839
Werner von Brown, a brilliant engineer who had helped develop
5
00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:20.519
Germany's most advanced rocket, a weapon produced through forced labor
6
00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:24.600
inside the Nazi camp system. That's an awkward place to
7
00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:28.280
begin the American space story, which is exactly why we
8
00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:32.280
should begin there. Von Brown and his colleagues weren't brought
9
00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.560
to the United States because anyone had decided that former
10
00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:39.880
Nazi scientists would make charming neighbors. The war in Europe
11
00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:43.200
was over, the Soviet Union was looking for the same
12
00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:48.039
German expertise. American officials wanted that knowledge first, and they
13
00:00:48.119 --> 00:00:51.320
wanted to keep it away from their rival. The project
14
00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:55.840
began as Project Overcast. Later it became known as Operation
15
00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.600
paper Clip. The original plan was temporary, six months, maybe
16
00:01:00.679 --> 00:01:05.359
a year. Temporary turned out to mean something very flexible.
17
00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:09.319
The answer was not a short visit, it was a pipeline.
18
00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:15.079
Over the following years, more than fifteen hundred German scientists, engineers,
19
00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:20.480
and technicians were moved into American military industrial academic and
20
00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:25.239
government work. This wasn't a handful of brilliant individuals receiving
21
00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:29.439
plane tickets and starting over. The United States was absorbing
22
00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:35.200
an entire technical workforce, its methods, test data, design, habits,
23
00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:39.680
and institutional memory. And it wasn't only about rockets. People
24
00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:43.319
connected to paper Clip worked on missile guidance, jet and
25
00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:49.280
rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, and aerospace medicine. In other words,
26
00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.280
the United States wasn't just learning how to send machines upward.
27
00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:56.280
It was also building the systems that could keep a
28
00:01:56.359 --> 00:02:01.359
human being alive after the machine got there. The paperwork
29
00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.719
makes the arrangement look tidy, the history does not. Some
30
00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:09.719
recruits had belonged to the Nazi Party, the SS, or
31
00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:13.520
the SA. That doesn't mean everyone in the program shared
32
00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:17.280
the same beliefs or carried the same level of responsibility,
33
00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:21.080
but it does mean American officials knew there were serious
34
00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:24.919
questions attached to some of these people. In certain cases,
35
00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:29.840
those affiliations were obscured or downplayed during screening. So what
36
00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:33.400
happened here? The United States had just fought a war
37
00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:37.560
against Nazi Germany and then decided that some people connected
38
00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:42.000
to its military research were more valuable inside American laboratories
39
00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:47.319
than under deeper investigation. Yes, that was the trade, and
40
00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.840
the V two makes it impossible to describe the arrangement
41
00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:54.560
as a clean exchange of clever Ideas the rocket was
42
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:59.879
technically extraordinary, its production relied on brutal forced labor, with
43
00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:05.039
prisoners forced to work underground in brutal conditions. Von Braun's
44
00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:08.719
scientific achievement is real, so is his connection to a
45
00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:14.680
regime that treated human beings as expendable labor. Then the
46
00:03:14.759 --> 00:03:19.319
rocket's destination changes. The knowledge behind the V two is
47
00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:24.199
adapted for American missile programs. Von Braun's group moves from
48
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:28.639
Fort Bliss to Huntsville, Alabama. In nineteen sixty, the group
49
00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:32.039
becomes part of NASA, where it plays a central role
50
00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:35.560
at the Marshall Space Flight Center. By nineteen fifty eight,
51
00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:41.639
related expertise helps launch Explore one, the first American satellite.
52
00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:46.360
In the nineteen sixties, Saturn rockets carry astronauts towards the Moon.
53
00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:50.879
The photographs invite a simple story, the imported rocket team,
54
00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:56.039
the rising launch vehicles, the inevitable march to Apollo. But
55
00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:59.560
I'd be careful with the cinematic version. The one where
56
00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:03.639
vonn Ron and his colleagues single handedly win the space race.
57
00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:10.919
Apollo depended on thousands of American engineers, technicians, scientists, managers,
58
00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:18.079
factory workers, and political decisions. It depended on budgets, institutions, manufacturing,
59
00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:22.600
and an enormous national effort. Paper Clips supplied an important
60
00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:27.120
part of the foundation. It did not build the whole house. Still,
61
00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:30.680
it changed what the United States could do and how
62
00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:34.160
quickly it could do it. That's the part that keeps
63
00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:38.759
catching me. A program created to acquire military expertise and
64
00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:42.680
deny it to the Soviet Union helped build the infrastructure
65
00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:48.600
for one of humanity's most inspiring scientific achievements. Picture the
66
00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:53.319
moon landing for a second. The astronauts the broadcast the
67
00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:57.199
first footprints now hold that image beside the people who
68
00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:00.360
were forced to build the rocket technology that that made
69
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:05.120
the journey possible. Can triumph and moral compromise occupy the
70
00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:11.120
same sentence. The moon landing was a genuine scientific achievement,
71
00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:14.480
and the people subjected to forced labor in the V
72
00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:19.279
two program remain part of the human cost carried into
73
00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:21.000
that American space story.
1
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.720
In nineteen forty six, more than one hundred German rocket
2
00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:08.240
specialists were gathered at Fort Bliss, Texas, working with captured
3
00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:11.720
V two missiles. At the center of that group was
4
00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:15.839
Werner von Brown, a brilliant engineer who had helped develop
5
00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:20.519
Germany's most advanced rocket, a weapon produced through forced labor
6
00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:24.600
inside the Nazi camp system. That's an awkward place to
7
00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:28.280
begin the American space story, which is exactly why we
8
00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:32.280
should begin there. Von Brown and his colleagues weren't brought
9
00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.560
to the United States because anyone had decided that former
10
00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:39.880
Nazi scientists would make charming neighbors. The war in Europe
11
00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:43.200
was over, the Soviet Union was looking for the same
12
00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:48.039
German expertise. American officials wanted that knowledge first, and they
13
00:00:48.119 --> 00:00:51.320
wanted to keep it away from their rival. The project
14
00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:55.840
began as Project Overcast. Later it became known as Operation
15
00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.600
paper Clip. The original plan was temporary, six months, maybe
16
00:01:00.679 --> 00:01:05.359
a year. Temporary turned out to mean something very flexible.
17
00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:09.319
The answer was not a short visit, it was a pipeline.
18
00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:15.079
Over the following years, more than fifteen hundred German scientists, engineers,
19
00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:20.480
and technicians were moved into American military industrial academic and
20
00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:25.239
government work. This wasn't a handful of brilliant individuals receiving
21
00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:29.439
plane tickets and starting over. The United States was absorbing
22
00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:35.200
an entire technical workforce, its methods, test data, design, habits,
23
00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:39.680
and institutional memory. And it wasn't only about rockets. People
24
00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:43.319
connected to paper Clip worked on missile guidance, jet and
25
00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:49.280
rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, and aerospace medicine. In other words,
26
00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.280
the United States wasn't just learning how to send machines upward.
27
00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:56.280
It was also building the systems that could keep a
28
00:01:56.359 --> 00:02:01.359
human being alive after the machine got there. The paperwork
29
00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.719
makes the arrangement look tidy, the history does not. Some
30
00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:09.719
recruits had belonged to the Nazi Party, the SS, or
31
00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:13.520
the SA. That doesn't mean everyone in the program shared
32
00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:17.280
the same beliefs or carried the same level of responsibility,
33
00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:21.080
but it does mean American officials knew there were serious
34
00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:24.919
questions attached to some of these people. In certain cases,
35
00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:29.840
those affiliations were obscured or downplayed during screening. So what
36
00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:33.400
happened here? The United States had just fought a war
37
00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:37.560
against Nazi Germany and then decided that some people connected
38
00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:42.000
to its military research were more valuable inside American laboratories
39
00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:47.319
than under deeper investigation. Yes, that was the trade, and
40
00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.840
the V two makes it impossible to describe the arrangement
41
00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:54.560
as a clean exchange of clever Ideas the rocket was
42
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:59.879
technically extraordinary, its production relied on brutal forced labor, with
43
00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:05.039
prisoners forced to work underground in brutal conditions. Von Braun's
44
00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:08.719
scientific achievement is real, so is his connection to a
45
00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:14.680
regime that treated human beings as expendable labor. Then the
46
00:03:14.759 --> 00:03:19.319
rocket's destination changes. The knowledge behind the V two is
47
00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:24.199
adapted for American missile programs. Von Braun's group moves from
48
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:28.639
Fort Bliss to Huntsville, Alabama. In nineteen sixty, the group
49
00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:32.039
becomes part of NASA, where it plays a central role
50
00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:35.560
at the Marshall Space Flight Center. By nineteen fifty eight,
51
00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:41.639
related expertise helps launch Explore one, the first American satellite.
52
00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:46.360
In the nineteen sixties, Saturn rockets carry astronauts towards the Moon.
53
00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:50.879
The photographs invite a simple story, the imported rocket team,
54
00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:56.039
the rising launch vehicles, the inevitable march to Apollo. But
55
00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:59.560
I'd be careful with the cinematic version. The one where
56
00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:03.639
vonn Ron and his colleagues single handedly win the space race.
57
00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:10.919
Apollo depended on thousands of American engineers, technicians, scientists, managers,
58
00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:18.079
factory workers, and political decisions. It depended on budgets, institutions, manufacturing,
59
00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:22.600
and an enormous national effort. Paper Clips supplied an important
60
00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:27.120
part of the foundation. It did not build the whole house. Still,
61
00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:30.680
it changed what the United States could do and how
62
00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:34.160
quickly it could do it. That's the part that keeps
63
00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:38.759
catching me. A program created to acquire military expertise and
64
00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:42.680
deny it to the Soviet Union helped build the infrastructure
65
00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:48.600
for one of humanity's most inspiring scientific achievements. Picture the
66
00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:53.319
moon landing for a second. The astronauts the broadcast the
67
00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:57.199
first footprints now hold that image beside the people who
68
00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:00.360
were forced to build the rocket technology that that made
69
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:05.120
the journey possible. Can triumph and moral compromise occupy the
70
00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:11.120
same sentence. The moon landing was a genuine scientific achievement,
71
00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:14.480
and the people subjected to forced labor in the V
72
00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:19.279
two program remain part of the human cost carried into
73
00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:21.000
that American space story.
