The same month the Nuremberg trial opened, in October 1945, the Army Air Forces hosted a grand two-day-long fair at Wright Field. On display were captured German and Japanese aircraft and rockets seen by the public for the first time since war’s end. Over half a million people from twenty-six countries came to marvel at the confiscated enemy equipment, said to be worth $150 million. Among the items on display were the V-2 rocket, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 G3 fighter aircraft, and the Messerschmitt Me 262. Particularly fascinating to the public was that some of the airplanes still had swastikas painted on their tails. The fair was so popular that the Army Air Forces extended it for five days. There was no mention made of the fact that several of the men who had designed and engineered these weapons were living a stone’s throw away, at the Hilltop.
Among the half-million visitors at the fair was John C. Green, the Commerce Department’s representative on the JIOA advisory board and its executive secretary overseeing the PB reports. The board had just changed its name to the Office of Technical Services, underscoring its transformation from a passive “board” to a more active “service” that would make use of cutting-edge science and technology. As planned, Green tracked down Colonel Putt at the Wright Field Fair. He had a myriad of questions for Putt, all of which centered around one idea: How could all this science and technology on display benefit American industry moving forward? Initially, Putt was uneasy about Green’s attention, but in the end he decided to take a gamble on him. After all, John C. Green had access to the classified list. Putt shared with him some information about the German scientists on the Hilltop. How they were like men kept in an ivory tower, how their talents were squandered by policy and prejudice in some circles in Washington, D.C. They needed employment opportunities, Putt lamented. Perhaps Green could help?
Green seemed amenable, and Putt took note. “During his visit to the Air Forces Fair, Wright Field, [John C. Green] evidenced keen interest and inquired as to the reaction of industry toward the possible employment of German scientists,” Putt wrote in a memo. He was not yet clear if Green’s “influence is favorable or unfavorable.” But Putt decided to take the risk. He forwarded to Green several “letters of interest” from defense contractors regarding potential employment of the German scientists. These documents had already been received by Air Material Command. They included letters from Dow Chemical Company, the AiResearch Manufacturing Company, and the Aircraft Industries Association. Defense contracts meant that there was business in the wings waiting to be transacted. It was Washington, D.C., that stood in the way. Putt explained to Green that these private businesses did not have a high enough security clearance to deal directly with the German scientists themselves.
John C. Green wrote to JIOA explaining what he had in mind: German scientists of “international repute” should be allowed, with their families, to enter the United States for long-term work, argued Green. This was good for American businesses. The letters from the defense contractors indicated that there was a great demand for this kind of work. The Commerce Department would set up a board to weed out the Nazis and bring the good Germans in. The German scientists’ knowledge and know-how would be “fully and freely” available to all Americans, said Green. This boom to industry would help create tens of thousands of American jobs.
Inside the JIOA, reactions were mixed, particularly among advisory board members. The assistant secretary of the interior was skeptical as to how Commerce could guarantee to keep old Nazis out of the program. The War Department did not like the idea of having to bring the families to America. Army Intelligence felt Green’s proposal had validity from an economic perspective. If Commerce got involved in the German scientist program, the army would not necessarily have to shoulder so much of the financial burden. The State Department continued to voice objections, saying that regardless of who footed the bill, visas were not going to be granted to former enemies of the state without thorough and individual investigations. The Nazi scientist program was a temporary military program, State said. Nothing more.