On October 12, 1951, the JIOA and Army Intelligence read the high commissioner’s report. A confidential memo from the Department of the Army in Heidelberg was sent back marked urgent: “Suspend shpmt Dr. Kurt Blome appears inadmissible in view of HICOG [High Commissioner of Germany].”
McPherson would not readily accept this setback. “Blome contract signed and approved Commander in Chief. Subject completing preparations for shipment late November. Has already turned over private practice Dortmund to another doctor. In view of adverse publicity which might ensue and which may destroy entire program this theatre recommend[s] subject be shipped for completion 6 months portion contract,” he wrote. The case was sent to the consulate for an opinion. On October 24, 1951, the consulate in Frankfurt agreed with army intelligence: “Frankfurt Consul states Blome inadmissible.”
Charles McPherson saw Blome’s rejection as calamitous. It interfered with the core mission of the Special Projects Team and jeopardized the success of the entire Accelerated Paperclip program, he believed. “Recommend Blome be shipped and ostensibly occupied on inconsequential activities in the United States for 6 months,” McPherson suggested. But that idea was rejected, too.
McPherson contacted Blome by telephone. They agreed to meet at the Burgtor Hotel in Dortmund. McPherson brought a colleague from the Special Projects Team along with him this time, Philip Park. McPherson’s job was “to explain to [Blome] the reasons why we were unable to send him to the United States at the present time.” Agent Park could back him up if uncomfortable questions arose.
“Professor Blome was alone when we came in. I commenced by saying that I had some bad news to tell him,” McPherson wrote in a memo. “I then stated that due to another change in our security laws we were forced to suspend our shipments to the United States.”
Blome was no fool. This was a man who skillfully argued at Nuremberg that intent was not a crime and was acquitted on these grounds. Now, at the Burgtor Hotel, Blome made clear to McPherson that he did not believe McPherson’s lies. Blome had recently been in communication with his colleague and former professor Pasqual Jordan and was entirely aware that Jordan was actively being prepared for Accelerated Paperclip work. Blome told McPherson that he had recently been in contact with one of his deputies in biological warfare research, the rinderpest expert Professor Erich Traub. Blome told McPherson that he was well aware that Traub had recently gone to America “under the auspices of the Paperclip Project.” Blome was particularly upset because Traub had worked under him during the war.
McPherson tried to placate Dr. Blome. “I then said that we were still ready to put his contract in effect and that we had a position for him at a military post in Frankfurt, probably as a post doctor.” McPherson suggested that Blome come have a look at the facility, that it was a pleasant place and offered a well-paying job. “He and his wife agreed,” McPherson wrote in his report. Still, McPherson saw the situation with Dr. Blome as potentially disastrous. “The undersigned wishes to point out that he did not tell the Blomes that their opportunity to go to the United States is apparently nil and apparently will remain that way, but took the slant that our shipments have been suspended for an indefinite duration. This will leave the way open in the event something can be done.”
McPherson worried that the Blome affair was going to have an unfavorable effect “upon our project not only by the immediate individuals concerned but by the chain reaction produced by one individual telling the other that the Americans have broken their word.” McPherson was actively recruiting other German scientists at the same time. He believed that he had a handle on how the scientists communicated among themselves. “The professional class of Germany is tightly enough knit so that this word will be widely disseminated and the future effectiveness of our program will be greatly curtailed.”