What Did Rosenbergs Do During The Cold War?

The Cold War brought out the suspicious side of the American population. Our government had fired or forced resignations of thousands of government employees. The Justice Department had begun prosecuting eleven leaders of the Communist Party, who were later convicted and imprisoned. Two trials became the center of attention, one against former State Department official Ager Hiss and another against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Americans were fearing that communist spies

The late 1940′s were a time when much change happened to the American society. As a result to the expanding threat of the Soviet Union, or its Communistic ideals, America took a stand that lead it to the Cold War.  Although the war didn’t involve fighting directly with Russia, it still affected the American society and domestic policy. The war affected America so much that it lead to a fear of livelihood; precisely when Joseph McCarthy began his “witch hunt”. The Cold war lead to an enlarged fear of nuclear war; as well, it affected many of the domestic policies.

The Cold War, which was considered the “years of maximum danger,” lasted from 1949-1962. This period brought an increasing sense of danger to America because the Soviet Union came into possession of an atomic bomb in 1949; an idea many Americans thought to be impossible unless the Soviet Union had a spy in the United States, which they did. Because the Soviet Union had an atomic bomb, a nuclear war became a reality. In Kenneth Rose’s “One Nation Underground” he told of rising issues associated with the Cold War and the threat of nuclear bombings. The Cold War, in conjunction with the inventions of (total destructive) bombs, generated new dangers, fears, and morality issues among Americans, which led to further increased fears.

During the Cold War, America and the Soviet Union were competing to develop more sophisticated weaponry than each other. Because of this, Americans dreaded the Soviet Union. They also feared communism– which according to Achieve 3000’s passage,“Case Against Rosenberg Falls Apart”,“It is the political theory that the Soviet’s lived by” (1). Also according to Achieve 3000, “The Americans thought that the Soviet Union had spies that were in the midst of the American people” (1). This fear lead to many precautions that the government made to prevent the American people from fearing the Soviet Union which was called the “Red Scare”.

Apart from the fear and paranoia towards the Communist camp, Americans were also shocked by the news of Communist spies and espionages within their own backyard. This not only led to increased surveillance in the US but the environment also became rather hostile and surveillance was very high. When the Soviet’s obtained their own nuclear bombs, the threat of the nuclear bomb and the advancement of Communism itself became blur. In the film Atomic Café, archival footage of U.S. Senator Owen Brewster reveals him saying that the Russians obtained the atom bomb, “not through independent research, but from America, from traitors within our own ranks,” referring specifically to alleged Communists. This instigated a new sense of fear and paranoia

During the Cold War, the United States was deeply enthralled in fears of a Communist takeover. The Cold War, a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, lasted from 1945 to 1990. As the Cold War progressed spies and individuals of the communist party were uncovered and put on trial. Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin senator, took advantage of the United States fear of communists by making up false evidence and accusations against innocent people. Americans feared that there were roots of Communism throughout communities in the United States, and more specifically, in the government. In February of 1950, McCarthy made a radical statement announcing he possessed a list of 205 government officials that were involved in the communist party. This sparked the beginning of the McCarthy era. Because this list was made up, McCarthy had to keep his lie going to maintain spotlight attention from the media and its millions of viewers. His false accusations led to tension and outbreak among numerous communities in the United States. McCarthy generated the Red Scare and the Hollywood Blacklist, these two events ruined thousands of innocent peoples lives. Joseph McCarthy was driven by the need for power and, briefly, accomplished his goal through the use of fear and accusatory tactics.

In addition to limiting freedom of speech through the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Smith Act, Congress continued on a witch-hunt to remove all dissenters in any way they could, often charging and prosecuting individuals based on circumstantial evidence. This period, often referred to as the Second Red Scare, followed World War II and came as the United States entered the Cold War, was a time of much paranoia. One of the many cases during this period that showed how little evidence was used against individuals to incriminate them was the case of Annie Lee Moss. According to a F.B.I informant, Ms. Moss was a “card carrying, dues paying” member of the Communist party and was brought to testify before McCarthy’s committee, for she was “alleged to have examined and correct secret, encoded oversee messages.” (The McCarthy Years)

The Cold War was a competition. The US and the Soviet Union raced to become the world’s number one superpower, building up their militaries, improving their arsenals, and developing more advanced weapons. However, weapons in the war were not limited to only nuclear warheads. The weapons used in the Cold War were nuclear warheads, and hope and terror caused by propaganda.

were selling the secrets of nuclear weapons to the Soviet Union. They arrested many people including Klaus Fuchs who was a member of the Manhattan Project and who was selling information about the atomic bomb to Moscow. McCarthy and Hoover "began a massive witch-hunt," which led to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. (Moss,220-222)

The justice system back then wasn’t as advanced as it is today, but people are still getting punishments that far outweigh their crime that person has committed.Some historians might argue about other conspirators had punishments that far outweighed their crime, George Atzerodt had a punishment that far outweighed his crime, he was assigned to kill the Vice president but he made no attempt to even go to the VP’s room yet he still got a punishment. The country back then was in shock and was trying to find a way of revenge for the president’s death. So they executed Atzerodt in public to make the humiliation even more outstanding.

Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass was working in New Mexico on an atomic bomb. Because the Rosenbergs were communists, and their relationship with Greenglass, they were accused of passing information regarding the bomb to the Soviet Union, when they really did nothing wrong. Despite their desperate pleas of innocence, “President Dwight D. Eisenhower twice rejected pleas for clemency. The Rosenbergs were executed on June 19, 1953” (Reeves). The president's allegiance is a symbol because it represents American ideas. To Eisenhower and the House of Un-American Activities Committee, communism was a threat to what the government already was. Communists were thought to support Russia, and they could not have those ideas spread around America. Eisenhower cared more about what America stood for rather than his own innocent citizens. The House of Un-American Activities Committee and Eisenhower’s loyalty to what they wanted the image and ideas of America to be was greater than their own citizens, making the decision to execute the Rosenbergs and easy one. The Rosenbergs did not do anything wrong, but in Eisenhower’s mind, just like Bill Hutchinson’s mind in “The Lottery”, they dismissed what the victims were saying and executed them. The innocent victims of both events had ideas that were never shared because people of higher authority refused to listen to them, and they both suffered from them. The higher power stuck with the traditions and

“McCarthyism” became an imprecation used to silence those who wanted to discuss the Communist penetration, including espionage, of American life. Richard Condon’s fantasy of a McCarthy-like demagogue in The Manchurian Candidate would capture the Wisconsin Senator’s effect: the ruthless demagogue who, by discrediting anti-Communism, insidiously advances the Communist cause. McCarthy was aided in his meteoric rise by the mendacious denial, on the part of the left, of the nature and success of a communist movement directed by Moscow in the United States. It was also true that his “reign of terror” would be greatly exaggerated by historians writing after his fall and on into the present time. They would use terms such as “The Great Fear” to characterize all anti-communism as a dark and destructive crusade that released the paranoia and nativism always threatening to burst through the surface of American

Upon his death sentence, Bartolomeo Vanzetti said, "I wish to tell you that I am an innocent man. I never committed any crime but sometimes some sin. I wish to forgive some people for what they are now doing to me." On August 23, 1927, two innocent men were executed by electrocution in Boston. Those two men were Sacco and Vanzetti, who were treated unjustly for prejudiced reasons.

The “Cold War” was a unique time period were paranoia ran high and the world was at a stalemate as it watch the competition between the two world superpowers,(U.S. and the U.S.S.R.).

A series of high profile spy scandals, like that of Alger Hiss, were reported in the press. It also became clear that the USSR's rapid progress in mastering atomic energy had been aided by information gathered by spies from the US nuclear program. Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, grabbed the headlines by declaring in early 1950 that the Truman administration was infiltrated by Communist agents and sympathisers. A modern-day witch-hunt broke out, with widespread panic ensuing. Anti-communist feeling intensified and many people, especially the Republican opposition, claimed that the government was not being tough enough on Communism,