19. If a subordinate director initiates any investigation on his own authority he will notify the director by the most expedient means, classified Top Secret–Presidential, that he has initiated such an investigation, and his reason for so doing.
20. The President reserves to himself the authority to disseminate any intelligence acquired by the director, or subordinate directors, of the Central Intelligence Directorate.
Harry S Truman
TOP SECRET—PRESIDENTIAL
Hammersmith thought: My God! It’s signed by Truman himself!
I wonder if Homer has seen this.
Of course he has. For one thing, that explains his turning over his—my—intel on Odessa to Cronley.
When both Hammersmith and Ziegler had read it, Cronley said, “Anyway, that’s what we live by. So tell us about Operation Tie Clip.”
“That’s Paperclip, sir,” Hammersmith said.
Hammersmith heard himself, and thought: I just called him “sir.” Not to be polite, but because I subconsciously just accepted that he’s not only in charge, but entitled to be. He’s operating with the authority of the President.
“Okay, Operation Paperclip,” Cronley said.
“G-2’s hands aren’t clean about getting Nazis out of Germany,” Hammersmith said.
“That’s interesting. Bearing in mind the Twenty Commandments I just showed you, tell us all about that.”
“Were you aware the Germans had their own atomic weapons program?”
“Oh, yeah. I even know they tried to ship some of their experts and half a ton of uranium oxide to Japan just as the war ended.”
Hammersmith thought: There’s more proof. He’s not kidding. He knows about that, and he shouldn’t know anything about it!
But let’s make sure.
“You mean there was a rumor they tried to do that?” he asked.
“No. I mean that General Gehlen and a very young intelligence officer whom modesty prohibits me from naming put their heads together and decided where U-234, which had the scientists and the uranium oxide aboard, was probably hiding in Patagonia, at the southern tip of South America.
“Said very young intelligence officer then climbed into a Storch and found U-234. He then took down SS-Oberführer Horst Lang, who was in the process of trying to sell said scientists and uranium oxide to the Soviets, with a blast from his trusty Thompson, thereby securing both the scientists and the uranium oxide for our side.”
Hammersmith thought: He’s talking about himself? Am I supposed to believe that?
“And that, Jack, is how I became a twenty-two-year-old captain,” Cronley said. “I think you’ve been wondering, so I reluctantly pushed modesty aside and told you because I think you should know. I hope it makes taking orders from me a little easier. But don’t pass that story around. My promotion orders and the citation for my Distinguished Service Medal—which I can’t wear because people would ask questions—are classified Top Secret–Presidential.”
Jesus Christ, it’s true!
Ziegler looked at Claudette, who smiled and nodded.
Hammersmith thought: I’ll be a sonofabitch. It’s true. All of it is true!
“I honestly don’t know what to say, Captain Cronley.”
“Try telling us about G-2’s unclean hands.”
After a moment to gather his thoughts, Hammersmith began to do so: “The technical services—the Signal Corps primarily, but also the Ordnance Corps, which is where the rocket scientists come in, and even the Medical Corps, and others—wanted early on to get their hands on German technology.
“They set up special teams to accompany the lead elements of the Army as it entered Germany, to capture German equipment. The Signal Corps, for example, wanted to get their hands on German radar, and, for one other example, a machine the Germans had developed that records speech and data on wire, wire recorders. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“I’m a little slow, but Freddy, Dette, and Augie are pretty swift, so keep going,” Cronley said.