The German Engineer Who Helped Americans Land On The Moon
If you were a kid in the ‘60s, then you’d probably recognize this man beside President John F. Kennedy as Wernher von Braun. Born in Germany, he rose to prominence in the United States as one of the chief architects of America’s historic lunar trip. What you may not know, though, is his shady origins.
An engineer in Nazi Germany, he was recruited by the United States along with 1,600 other scientists in a covert mission called Operation Paperclip. The project harnessed their expertise to develop America’s arsenal of weapons during the Cold War. Von Braun died as an American citizen in the ‘70s after a battle with cancer.
