The introductory Chapter 1 sketches an outline of the book’s object of study: the gray literature produced by American and European intellectuals during World War II in the study of Nazi Germany. I point to two unexpected protagonists, who rose to the challenge of the moment during World War II: Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish and cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead. I describe the improvised intellectual networks, funded by government institutions, universities, as well as philanthropies and point to Hans Kohn’s career to spell out some of the complexities one encounters while studying the European-American encounter during World War II. The second part of the introductory chapter approaches the memorandum through its fictional rendering in Sinclair Lewis’ Gideon Planish, before diving into the making of one of its most famous texts, the “American Century” by Henry Luce.