Quote:
Originally posted by PhiPsiRuss
That's an asshole response.
There are cynical theories, that are credible, as to why we didn't bomb those camps, but saving Nazi officers is just not one of these.
|
Sorry but I felt that an asshole statement deserves an asshole response...
But as for the topic at hand - yes the OSS was formed during the war, and a the main training facility is just a 45 minute drive from my house - Camp X - where Canadian, French, American, British, Polish, and other Allies where trained in covert operations and warfare... perhaps the most famous grad was Ian Fleming of James Bond fame.
While the CIA was formed after the war it is a direct decendant of the OSS, and the OSS was trained originally under a 'British' system of Military Intelligence... think MI5 or MI6 which got their respective origins in the British Foreign Office and the Fleet Admiralty back during the Great War... this is important because of doctrine involved - specifically in the form of a major player during the formation of the British services during the Great War: Winston Churchill.
Now Churchill was a strong advocate of the intelligence war, and was personally involved in the selection and appointment of not only trainers but command staff for Camp X... so needless to say some of his personal beliefs concerning intelligence and the prosecution of the war were felt. Now think about the fact that although Churchill hated the Nazis, he had come to realize the Soviet Union would be the primary threat after the war; a view that was not discouraged at Camp X (for example no Soviets were trained or allowed there)... so if the founders of the CIA are more in line with Churchill's thinking about the USSR it stands to reason that US and UK intelligence services would try to procure 'assests' with experience dealing with the USSR - hence the recruitment/turning of a number of SS and Gestapo men from the Eastern Front... besides there was more than a passing concern about the 'Werewolf' plan.
So with the scamble to aquire as much intelligence and information from the remains of the Nazi state, some living experts were required: so scientists, intelligence, medical, military, and others were 'recruited' (given sanctuary or conditional pardons). It should come as no surprise that the CIA aquired some intelligence assests, just as the Air Force grabbed any scientist that it could dealing with rocketry and jet power...
Morally was this right? Is it right to benifit from Nazi intelligence or knowledge? These questions have been and continue to be raised even today... for example there are medical departments that will not use Gray Anatomy because the anotomical diagrams were made in the concentration camps
