The Operation Paperclip T-Shirt is inspired by the US Governments post-war program to recruit former Nazi scientists and engineers to work in the United States and help the US gain dominance in the growing Cold War. Most notable amongst them was rocket scientist Wernher von Braun who had developed the V-2 rocket during the war and went on to develop the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1, and the Apollo program manned lunar landings.