Rosenberg Spies Essays -- Julius Ethel Rosenberg Nuclear Weapons Essay

Rosenberg Spies In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of passing information to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) concerning the construction of nuclear weapons. In 1953, the United States Government executed them. Some say, the Rosenbergs received their just punishment. Many historians feel that the trial was unfair, and that international claims for clemency were wrongly ignored. These historians claim that the Rosenbergs were assassinated by the US government. This report will be an analysis of the trial, the events which led up to it, and its aftermath. What Led to the Arrest? The first clue America had that a Russian spy ring existed in the US was the discovery of a KGB codebook on the Finnish battlefield during World War II. When compared with Germany's machine-scrambled codes, the code appeared to be relatively primitive; a certain set of numbers corresponded to a word, letter, or essential phrase. There was a little catch though; the codebook was to be read with a corresponding page that every KGB officer was given. Because the American ciphers did not have the corresponding page, there were an infinite number of possibilities that could have corresponded to the book, making deciphering it impossible. (Milton 7) Klaus Fuchs In 1944, the FBI raided the New York offices of the Soviet Government Purchasing Commission, a known front for the KGB industrial espionage operations. When the FBI began to go through what they had taken, they found that many KGB officers did not adhere to their orders diligently. They were told to dispose of all their "corresponding sheets." Many memos and other letters were carelessly stored away, instead of being destroyed after their use. After much studying of all the confiscated letters of the KGB, including the new sheets, the ciphers were now able to elucidate some of the codebook they had found earlier. In 1949, a report by Klaus Fuchs was deciphered. This was America's first solid evidence that there was a spy ring operating within the US. borders. The American authorities had some doubts, however. It was possible that Fuchs was not a spy and somehow the KGB had obtained his report. After much investigation, the FBI arrested Fuchs. Along with other evidence, a letter deciphered by the FBI had a reference to a British atomic spy, whose sister was att... ...y after a jury's recommendations. From the day the Rosenbergs were indicted to three days before their execution, this act was ignored. Astonishingly, nobody realized, including the prosecutors, defendants, or any judges, that this was being ignored. A lawyer from the West Coast raised the issue that suggested to somebody that the Rosenbergs were being wrongly executed. Even after the issue was raised, the Supreme Court ignored it and the Rosenbergs were executed anyway. Still today, there is an ongoing and bitter controversy as to why the Rosenbergs were put to death. (Sharlitt 27) Bibliography Allen, Thomas, and Norman Polmar. Merchants of Treason. New York: Delacorte Press, 1988. Burkholz, Herbert, and Clifford Irving. Spy The Story of Modern Espionage. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1969. Eisenhower, Dwight. Mandate For Change. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1963. Milton, Joyce, and Ronald Rodash. The Rosenberg File. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. Meeropol, Michael, and Robert Meeropol. We Are Your Sons. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975. Sharlitt, Joseph. Fatal Error. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989.