The Rosenberg Trial :: essays research papers

The Rosenberg trial, which ended in adouble operation in 1953, was one of the centurys mostcontroversial trials. It was sometimes referred to as, "thebest publicize spy hunt of all times" as it came to the publiceye in the time of atom-spy hysteria. Husband and wife,Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with conspiracy tocommit espionage. Most of the joust surrounding thiscase came from mass speculation that there were influencesbeing reinforced by behind-the-scenes pressure, mainly fromthe government, which was detected through muchinconsistencies in testimonies and early(a) misconduct in thecourt. Many shared the belief that Ethel Rosenbergexpressed best as she wrote in one of her last letters beforebeing executed, "-knowing my maintain and I must bevindicated by history...We are the first victims of AmericanFascism." Some people believed that the Rosenbergs had avulnerable background which made these cleared peoplefall victim to the government. In Septembe r 1940 JuliusRosenberg was hired by US army Signal Corps as a juniorengineer, simply fired March 1945 because he was found to bea member of the communist party. He was employed in1945 with Emerson Radio. Finally, in 1946 BernardGreenglass, his br otherwise-in-law, asked him to a join warsurplus business called Pitt Machine Products Company.Ethel Rosenberg supported herself as a teenager throughpageant prize money she won as a utterer and dancer. Lateron she was employed as a clerk for National Shipping butlost her job for union activities. They lived a happily maritallife with two sons until June 15, 1950 when brother-in-law,David Greenglass named Julius and Ethel as people whorecruited him to spy for the Soviet Union. The case judgedby Irving R. Kaufman began on March 6,1957. TheRosenbergs, as well as Morton Sobell, were accused ofdelivering information, documents, sketches and othermaterial vital to the national defense of our country, to aforeign power, namely, to Soviet Russi a. Greenglass testifiedthat it was he who turned over most of these materials to theRosenbergs because of pressure. On March 29, after amuch publicized court case, the couple were found guilty andsentenced to be executed in the week of May 21, and theiraccused co-conspirator, Sobell, got 30 years in jail becausehe was not explicitly connected to the atom bomb. Manypeople were against this decision and the president tried tojustify such rash actions "The execution of two human beingsis a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of themillions of dead whose death may be directly attributable towhat these spies put one across done." After many failed appeals,Julius and Ethel were electrocuted minutes apart on June 19,