“Two things soon became apparent to the Signal Corps, and then, importantly, to the Ordnance Corps. First, that just having the equipment to study wasn’t enough. They needed the people who had invented, for example, the wire recorder and the V-1 and V-2 rockets, to explain these devices. And second, that the Germans could do a much better job doing this at Fort Monmouth and Fort Bliss than they could in Germany. Still with me?”
Cronley nodded.
“So they got special permission from President Truman to bring German scientists to the United States. Truman wanted to make sure that no Nazis got to go to the States, so when the War Department’s Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency was formed it specifically prohibited bringing to the States any German who had been a member of the Nazi Party who had been more than a ‘nominal participant’ in Nazi activities.”
“And the scientists they wanted had all been Nazis?” Cronley asked.
“Not all of them, but m
any. And the problem was compounded when we found out that the Russians were grabbing all German scientists they could lay their hands on and shipping them to Mother Russia, together with their laboratories. And further compounded when we learned how far ahead of us the Germans were in certain areas, particularly rockets and rocket-propelled missiles like the V-1 and V-2.
“The 82nd Airborne Division was ordered to send a task force to the main German rocket establishment, Peenemünde, which is on a small island, Usedom, in Mecklenburg. They were ordered to grab the rockets and the rocket scientists before the Red Army grabbed them and sent them to Russia.
“They did so. The 82nd grabbed all the rockets at Peenemünde, plus several hundred scientists, including the head man, a fellow named Wernher von Braun. The rockets were flown to Fort Bliss and the scientists locked up in what was to become the American Zone of Occupied Germany.”
“Where they found out that all the scientists were Nazis,” Hessinger asked, “and could not be sent to the States?”
“Not all of them were Nazis,” Hammersmith said. “But many were. Including von Braun.”
“Which made all the rockets at Fort Bliss so much scrap metal,” Hessinger finished. “From which, without the scientists, we could learn nothing.”
“So this Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency shipped the Nazi scientists anyway, and let’s hope Truman—or J. Edgar Hoover—doesn’t find out?” Cronley asked.
“Major Wallace had the same problem with Abwehr Ost,” Hessinger said.
“I was afraid, Freddy, that you were going to introduce that into the equation,” Cronley said.
“It’s pertinent,” Hessinger said.
“You did the same thing?” Hammersmith asked.
“Jack asking that question is why I was afraid you’d mention this, Freddy,” Cronley said.
“It’s pertinent,” Hessinger said again.
“The scenarios are not the same,” Cronley said. “Allen Dulles made a deal with Gehlen. Almost certainly with Eisenhower’s approval, and probably the President’s. In exchange for everything Gehlen had, we would protect him and his people from the Russians.”
“So you faked the denazification trials?” Hammersmith asked.
Instead of answering, Cronley asked, “Is that what this Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency did?”
Hammersmith nodded and said, “So I understand.”
“What I understand happened,” Cronley said, “is that after we shipped the known Abwehr Ost Nazis and their families to Cletus Frade in Argentina, Wallace and Colonel Robert Mattingly ran the others through the Denazification Court process and got them cleared.”
“Gehlen, too?” Hammersmith said.
Cronley nodded.
“The chief of Abwehr Ost wasn’t a Nazi?” Hammersmith said.
“He was. And so were all of his senior officers. But they got a pass, because Gehlen—and Obersts Ludwig Mannberg and Otto Niedermeyer . . .”
“Niedermeyer?” Ziegler said.
“. . . were up to their ears in most of the plots to take out Hitler. Not just the von Stauffenberg bomb plot.”
“But didn’t get caught?” Hammersmith asked incredulously.