President Truman comes to the conclusion that a financially broken Britain woudl be about as dangerous as a completely broken Germany. He is also persuaded that an entire generation of technology could be lost in post war defence cuts. Technology that could easily be aquired for America with minimal investment.
In desperate financial straits, the UK is not in any position to say no to foreign investment, no matter how many strings are attached, and no matter how burned they feel over Truman's handling of the Manhattan Project.
Operation Paperclip is amended and exended to support British R&D in certain fields, such as aerospace, electronics, computing, artillery, and anything else the UK government wishes to recomend. (In a bid for money, the X4 rocket is suggested.) However selected American firms must be given access, and this technology must not be shared with third parties.
Ripples:
As a result, the M52 is not cancelled, though it gets no increase in funding (and is thus the second aircraft to break the sound barier) the Colossus machines are not broken up, the L7 can be introduced a few years early, and Jet technology is not sold to the soviet union. On the other hand, the soviets did have a British spy network.
What are the consiquences for the Korean War?