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Comment by 908B64B197 | Hacker News Reader

You might be interested by Operation Paperclip [0].

The US was actively looking for key scientific talent in then devastated Germany to bring back home after World War II.

This concentration of talent, coupled with intense investments in fundamental research during the Cold War and better living conditions for scientists made it an obvious choice for any academic to relocate to the United States.

Even today, the US immigration system still has a preference for foreigners who can meaningfully contribute to the advancement of science.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

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Although the Soviets had a very similar system (Operation Osoaviakhim) to get German scientists after the war, although less well known (and also a bit less voluntary on the part of the scientists)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Osoaviakhim

The Soviet's didn't really know how to properly make use of "their" Germans though, at least for working on concrete projects. Only very few designs of German teams actually made it into production (like the turboprop engines used in the Tu-95: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95), but the Soviets never trusted their Germans enough to really integrate them longterm with Russian teams, instead the goal was to extract the German knowledge as fast as possible and then "dump" them (most German engineers and researchers captured by the Soviets were allowed to return to Germany around the mid- to late-50s, leading to interesting, but ultimately doomed projects like the first German jet airliner Baade 152: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baade_152).

Meanwhile the "American Germans" were welcomed, decided to make the US their new home and contributed heavily to the US space programme.

Easy to explain because the German fascists made a perfect match with the American fascists, whilst Russian communists had a problem with German fascists, plus under Stalin/Berisha everybody had a problem, also communist Germans and communist Russians. They nevertheless built up the Russian rocket and nuclear program.

In the US the germans could build the rocket program by their own without much US interference, until Lyndon Johnson broke it up.

Could you please elaborate on how "American fascists" are playing a role here? Sounds far fetched.

I think s/he is hinting at the fact that many Europeans and Americans believed that Hitler had the right idea about race and religion. Eugenics was a big thing in the US between WW1 and WW2. I also remember reading that one of the main reasons the ivy-leagues decided to change its admission system from money and meritocracy to the "search for all round candidate" also partially stemmed from anti-semitism - all the essay and interview bullshit that we see today was created to find reasons to reject the "wrong kind". Some old Harvard or Yale (don't remember which) admission applications of candidates rejected even had hand written notes, "looks too much like a jew". ( https://www.businessinsider.in/education/harvard-is-being-ac... ).

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