Qian Xuesen, co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, faced deportation in 1955 after the US revoked his security clearance in 1950 based on questionable evidence. The trade sent one of America's brightest aerospace minds back to China in exchange for eleven captured US airmen, a decision Navy Under Secretary Dan Kimball later called "the stupidest thing this country ever did".

Qian's technical contributions were profound. He worked with Theodore von Kármán at Caltech, helped establish JPL as America's answer to the German V-2 program, and wrote foundational reports that US Air Force history credits with "leading to America's postwar airpower dominance". His supersonic aerodynamics research directly influenced both US and German rocket programs.

The consequences of deporting Qian remain visible today. Seventy years later, Chinese aerospace systems developed with his help demonstrated capabilities that US military strategists now struggle to match. The United States, in 2026, attempts to build what the Pakistani Air Force operationally demonstrated using Chinese technology—advanced systems rooted in Qian's original American research documents.