Hello, I'm doing a history research project and I'm having some trouble finding primary sources relating to Operation Overcast/Paperclip.
I believe what I'm looking for could be something from the wartime conferences, specifically how they agreed to deny immigration of Nazis, or the order that Truman gave, approving Operation Overcast.
I've been trying to look through some online primary source databases, using archives.gov quite a bit, but have been unable to find any meaningful primary sources.
If any of you could suggest a better way for me to try and look for these sources, or if you know of any actual primary resources relating to this and could direct me to them, that would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
The CIA's FOIA Special Collections Archive has some relevant details digitized for Paperclip and other affiliated programs and contains some memorandum on the procedures for importing German scientists, especially those related to the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act.
Depending upon how much you're willing to travel, a some of the Paperclip scientists did leave their papers in various special collections of libraries and research institutions. For example, the Library of Congress has von Braun's papers and Iowa State has the papers of Alexander Lippisch. So searching some of the individuals involved in Paperclip might lead to some new discoveries.
Edit: One other interesting avenue to examine might be the various newspaper muckraking about Paperclip- they won't say Paperclip directly, but did expose this. Virginia's Senator Harry F. Bryd wrote an expose entitled "Hitler's Experts Work for Us" in American Magazine and The Nation in 1949 wrote an expose of the the scientists of the Third Reich living in the US. Obviously, these journalistic efforts will be a tad sensationalistic, but they are a window into some of the attitudes towards using the Third Reich's scientific expertise.