That had Robert H. Goddard been less secretive about his rocket work
and the US Government more open to alternate ideas (they also rejected the airplane shortly after its invention as a military weapon),
we might have had our own rocket program and not needed von Braun
as much, if at all. At least we know Goddard didn't use slave labor -
heck, he only had 7 guys at most at any one time, all paid.

Call it the superiority of hindsight if you will, but it has always been
this lack of vision by those with the purse strings who have kept us
from being even more advanced than we could be. I know there are
other factors involved, but this is no small one.

I was going to say the government did throw lots of resources and
money into making the atomic bomb without requiring Germans, but
a number of the Manhattan Project members were expatriate Germans,
so does that still count?

"Are there Germans better than our Germans?" - Dr. Strangelove