Operation paperclip, also known as project paperclip, was an operation by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) carried out by the special agency of Army CIC during the terminus and aftermath of World War II. The United States and its allies started the operation with the aim of finding and preserving German weapons, including chemical and biological agents.

However, the American scientific intelligence officers realized that the weapons themselves were not sufficient. They decided that the US also had to bring all the Nazi scientists into the United States. Therefore, they launched a mission to recruit Nazi chemists, physicists, and doctors, who went ahead to design the rockets that took the man to the moon.