Rosenberg Spies Essays -- Julius Ethel Rosenberg Nuclear Weapons Essay

Rosenberg Spies In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted ofpassing information to the Union of Soviet SocialistRepublics (USSR) concerning the construction of nuclearweapons. In 1953, the United States Government punishthem. Some say, the Rosenbergs received their justpunishment. Many historians feel that the trial was unfair,and that international claims for clemency were wronglyignored. These historians claim that the Rosenbergs wereassassinated by the US government. This report go forth be ananalysis of the trial, the events which led up to it, and itsaftermath. What Led to the Arrest? The first clue Americahad that a Russian spy ring existed in the US was thediscovery of a KGB codebook on the Finnish battlefieldduring World War II. When compared with Germanysmachine-scrambled codes, the code appeared to berelatively primitive a certain set of rime correspondedto a word, letter, or essential phrase. There was a littlecatch though the codebook was to be read with acorr esponding page that every KGB officer was given.Because the American ciphers did not have thecorresponding page, there were an infinite number ofpossibilities that could have corresponded to the book,making deciphering it impossible. (Milton 7) Klaus FuchsIn 1944, the FBI raided the New York offices of theSoviet Government Purchasing Commission, a known frontfor the KGB industrial espionage operations. When theFBI began to go through what they had taken, they foundthat many KGB officers did not adhere to their ordersdiligently. They were told to dispose of all theircorresponding sheets. Many memos and other letterwere carelessly stored away, instead of being destroyedafter their use. After much studying of all the confiscatedletters of the KGB, including the new sheets, the cipherswere now able to elucidate some(a) of the codebook they hadfound earlier. In 1949, a report by Klaus Fuchs wasdeciphered. This was Americas first solid evidence thatthere was a spy ring operating within t he US. borders. TheAmerican authorities had some doubts, however. It waspossible that Fuchs was not a spy and somehow the KGBhad obtained his report. After much investigation, the FBIarrested Fuchs. Along with other evidence, a letterdeciphered by the FBI had a reference to a British atomicspy, whose sister was att... ...y after a jurysrecommendations. From the day the Rosenbergs wereindicted to three days before their execution, this act wasignored. Astonishingly, nobody realized, including theprosecutors, defendants, or any judges, that this was beingignored. A lawyer from the West Coast raised the issuethat suggested to somebody that the Rosenbergs werebeing wrongly executed. Even after the issue was raised,the peremptory Court ignored it and the Rosenbergs wereexecuted anyway. Still today, there is an ongoing and bittercontroversy as to why the Rosenbergs were put to death.(Sharlitt 27) Bibliography Allen, Thomas, and NormanPolmar. Merchants of Treason. New York DelacortePress , 1988. Burkholz, Herbert, and Clifford Irving. SpyThe horizontal surface of Modern Espionage. New York MacmillanPublishing Company, 1969. Eisenhower, Dwight. MandateFor Change. Garden City Doubleday & Company, Inc.,1963. Milton, Joyce, and Ronald Rodash. The RosenbergFile. 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 PublishingCompany, 1989.