In the 40s and 50s, the United States was embroiled in the tension of the Cold War. Anti-communist sentiment was high, and Senator Joseph McCarthy and his lackeys were on the hunt for communist sympathizers. The U.S. government felt pressured to make a strong stand against communism, and it was, perhaps, this need that led to the dramatic execution of two American-born spies in 1953.
Julius Rosenberg met Ethel Greenglass in the late 1930s. They were married in 1939 and became members of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). After Julius graduated with his engineering degree, he got a job with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. It is believed that it was at this time that the two began sending military secrets to the Soviet Union. In following years, Julius would head a ring of spies, including Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass. Greenglass was a machinist on the Manhattan Project, and thus in a great position to trade in information about U.S. nuclear weapons and research. This worked well for them for several years, until 1945, when Julius was discharged from the U.S. Army because of his membership in the Communist party.
In the summer of 1950, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and David Greenglass were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. The Rosenbergs’ trials were widely publicized and hugely controversial. Part of the controversy lay in the fact that the U.S. case against the Rosenbergs was based solely on first-hand evidence presented by one witness: Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass. He agreed to turn against his sister and brother-in-law in exchange for leniency for himself and his wife. Critics argued that Greenglass’s motivation to trump up the charges against the Rosenbergs to save himself and the mother of his children was too personal for him to be a reliable witness. Others suggested that the judge was pressured to make a drastic decision on the case because of the U.S. need to appear tough on communism, especially in the case of Ethel Rosenberg, whose connection to the spy ring was tenuous at best. In any case, the Rosenbergs were sentenced to execution by electric shock. The two died together at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953. Greenglass was given 15 years in prison, and his wife was not charged.
Years later, in an interview with a Times reporter, David Greenglass admitted that some of the allegations he hurled at his sister during her trial may not have been correct. He said, “My wife is more important to me than my sister. . . O.K.? And she was the mother of my children.”
Learn more here:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/us/david-greenglass-spy-who-helped-seal-the-rosenbergs-doom-dies-at-92.html
- https://www.history.com/news/rosenbergs-executed-spies-cold-war
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Rosenberg-and-Ethel-Rosenberg
