Feature Nazi Technology

More from Gwen on Nazi Technology and US intelligence.

A battle to uncover a secret history from World War II is still being fought - in the U.S. Congress.

This time, the struggle is not with Germany, but our own CIA.

At the very end of the war, U.S. intelligence agencies sought out some of the best and most notorious Nazi scientists.

They were soon put to work, all in the name of the new Cold War battle against global Communism.

The Russians may have won the race to Berlin, but the Americans captured the head of the V-2 rocket program, Wernher von Braun.

Braun was sent to NASA, where he was immediately put to work converting that long range missile technology into the first manned spacecraft. He wasn't alone.

Under Operation Paper Clip, some 350 German scientists and former intelligence agents were given visas and well-paying jobs.

Many of those scientists had questionable pasts. Braun himself had been an active member of the Nazi party, and his colleague at NASA, Dr. Hubertus Strughold, a specialist in aviation medicine, had performed experiments on concentration camp inmates.

For decades, the Nazi past of many of these scientists was a well-kept secret.

Then, a disclosure law was signed in 1998.

It compelled the CIA to release all documents about Nazi collaborators hired by the U.S. government.

The CIA has been reluctant to comply, and many controversial details behind this story remain hidden from the American public.