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Bosquet Wev
JIOA Director Who Fabricated Nazi Scientists' Records for Operation Paperclip
Director of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) who oversaw the systematic falsification of security dossiers for Nazi scientists to circumvent President Truman's directive prohibiting the immigration of active Nazi Party members to the United States
Overview
Bosquet N. Wev was a U.S. military intelligence officer who served as director of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), the body within the U.S. War Department (later Department of Defense) responsible for administering Operation Paperclip. Operation Paperclip was a secret program initiated in 1945 to recruit German scientists, engineers, and technicians from Nazi Germany for employment by the United States government. President Truman authorized the program in September 1946 with the explicit directive that anyone found "to have been a member of the Nazi Party, and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism" would be excluded. Under Wev's direction, the JIOA systematically circumvented this presidential order by creating fraudulent security dossiers for scientists who had been active Nazi Party members, SS officers, or participants in war crimes. The JIOA would receive background reports from military intelligence identifying scientists as security threats due to their Nazi activities, then Wev's office would either alter the reports, create entirely new sanitized dossiers, or attach paperclips to the new clean files (giving the operation its name, according to some accounts) before resubmitting them for approval. Scientists whose records were falsified under this program included Wernher von Braun (SS Sturmbannfuhrer and V-2 rocket designer who used concentration camp slave labor at Mittelwerk), Arthur Rudolph (production manager at the Mittelwerk factory where approximately 20,000 prisoners died), Hubertus Strughold (the "father of space medicine" who conducted human experiments at Dachau), and Kurt Debus (active SS member who became the first director of NASA Kennedy Space Center). The State Department and the Justice Department both raised objections to JIOA practices, but military intelligence officials overrode civilian concerns by arguing that the scientists were essential to national security in the emerging Cold War with the Soviet Union. The JIOA ultimately brought approximately 1,600 German scientists and their families to the United States between 1945 and 1959. The full scope of the program was not publicly revealed until journalist Linda Hunt published her findings in the 1980s and declassified documents were released under FOIA in the late 1990s.
Key Affiliations
Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA)
Director; administered Operation Paperclip and directed the falsification of Nazi scientists' security dossiers to circumvent Truman's presidential directive
agency
U.S. War Department
Military intelligence officer; the JIOA operated under the Joint Intelligence Committee within the War Department
agency
Controversies & Concerns
Directed the systematic falsification of security dossiers for Nazi scientists who had been active Nazi Party members, SS officers, or participants in war crimes, in direct violation of President Truman's explicit directive
Overrode objections from the State Department and Justice Department about importing scientists identified as security threats due to their Nazi activities
The JIOA under his direction sanitized the record of Wernher von Braun, an SS Sturmbannfuhrer who personally visited the Mittelwerk underground factory where V-2 rockets were built by concentration camp slave labor
Approved the immigration of Arthur Rudolph, production manager at Mittelwerk where approximately 20,000 prisoners died; Rudolph was later stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 1984 when his wartime activities were exposed
Facilitated the entry of Hubertus Strughold, "father of space medicine," who was linked to human experiments at Dachau concentration camp and was on the Nuremberg doctors' trial suspect list
The JIOA created an institutional framework for circumventing presidential authority and civilian oversight in the name of national security, establishing a precedent for Cold War-era intelligence impunity
The full scope of the JIOA fraud was concealed for decades until journalist Linda Hunt and FOIA releases in the late 1990s exposed the systematic nature of the record falsification
Related Investigations (1)
Known Associates & Connections
Wernher von Braun
Nazi SS Sturmbannfuhrer and V-2 rocket designer whose security dossier was falsified by the JIOA to obscure his Nazi Party membership and SS rank
Sources & Documentation
4 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports
Jacobsen, A. - Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America (Little, Brown)(2014)
Hunt, L. - Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945-1990 (St. Martin's Press)(1991)
National Archives: Records of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA)
Bower, T. - The Paperclip Conspiracy: The Hunt for the Nazi Scientists (Little, Brown)(1987)
Personal Information
- Also Known As
- Bosquet N. Wev
Education
Key Timeline
1945-07
Operation Overcast (predecessor to Paperclip) begins bringing German scientists to the United States for temporary military consultation
1946-09
President Truman authorizes the long-term recruitment of German scientists but explicitly bars active Nazi Party members and supporters of Nazi militarism
1947
JIOA under Wev's direction begins systematically creating sanitized security dossiers to circumvent Truman's directive for scientists flagged as security threats
1947-03
The State Department protests JIOA practices, noting that scientists identified as ardent Nazis and potential security threats are being approved through falsified paperwork
1948
Wernher von Braun, whose original JIOA dossier described him as a security threat due to his SS membership and Nazi Party activities, receives a new sanitized file and is approved for permanent residence
1949
JIOA has imported hundreds of German scientists and their families; military officials argue that Cold War necessity overrides concerns about their Nazi records
1959
Operation Paperclip officially ends after approximately 1,600 German scientists and their families have been brought to the United States
1984
Arthur Rudolph, whose JIOA file had been sanitized, is stripped of U.S. citizenship and deported to Germany when his role as Mittelwerk production manager is exposed by the Office of Special Investigations
1985
Journalist Linda Hunt publishes findings revealing the JIOA systematic falsification of records, based on declassified documents obtained through FOIA
1998
The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act leads to mass declassification of Paperclip documents, revealing the full scope of the JIOA fraud