"Somehow, settling factual disputes about who was and wasn't a spy [for the Soviets, during the Second World War] has failed to create any new consensus. Instead, it has brought the fight about Communism in America back to life."

Jacob Weisberg

"Cold War Without End," The New York Times, November 28, 1999.

>> THE JULIUS AND ETHEL ROSENBERG CASE

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American Communists who were accused by the government of passing secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviets. In the summer of 1950, the Rosenbergs were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and served almost three years in prison; they were given a death sentence and were executed on June 19, 1953. Until the end of their lives, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg maintained their innocence. [1]

The Rosenberg's two sons Michael and Robert were ten and six-years-old when their parents were killed. After being moved from relative to relative and place to place, the boys were finally adopted, in 1957, by Ann and Abel Meeropol, a child-less couple whose politics were consistent with that of the Rosenberg parents. [2]

The case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg was one of the most highly publicized and controversial trials in the history of our country. In the days of the trial, a massive campaign in support of the Rosenbergs was launched; it lasted for years and involved thousands of supporters both here and abroad. For decades, beginning in the 1970s, Michael and Robbie Meeropol spearheaded a campaign to prove their parents' innocence.

In the mid-1990s, the Venona decrypts (secret cables transmitted between Moscow and Communist functionaries in the United States) were released to the public. At around the same time, Soviet archive files, dealing with the activities of the KGB (then the NKVD) in America, were opened for the first time. Evidence from these two sources contributed significantly to a new understanding of the guilt or innocence of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

From these sources we have learned that, in early 1941, the leadership of the state security branch of the Soviet government split its operations into two separate "political" and "scientific-technical" domains. Moscow had become interested in information on advanced "nonatomic American defense production." [3] The cables [4] and archives [5] and the testimony of Alexander Feklisov, Julius Rosenberg's handler, support claims that as early as 1941 Julius Rosenberg (code named "Antenna"), a mechanical engineer, organized a group of former City College classmates and fellow members of the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians (FAECT), who provided the Soviet Union with scientific and engineering data. [6] [7] At first the group gave information and Party dues directly to Soviet agent and Communist Party official, Jacob Golos. At the time, Golos told the group their information was being passed on to leaders of the American Communist Party, when actually, without revealing the names of his sources, Golos was giving the data to the Russians. [8] Later the group passed information on directly to Russian agent, Semyon Semyonov ("Twen") and then to Alexander Feklisov ("Kalistrat"). [9]

In 1944, Antenna (who received a new code name "Liberal" that year) informed Feklisov that his wife's brother, David Greenglass, a mechanical engineer and a member in good standing of the Communist Party, had been drafted into the army and had been assigned to the New Mexico army installation dealing with atomic research, the Manhattan Project. [10] Venona cables and Soviet files confirm that Rosenberg persuaded his brother-in-law to help the cause by gathering and passing on "urgently needed technical information" from his work at the army base in New Mexico. [11] [12]

The Soviets were interested in getting from Greenglass information about the physical plant, personnel and work at the "camp" in New Mexico. Because he believed that sharing data with the Russians about atomic research would prevent the Americans from having secret and exclusive possession of information about the bomb (a condition that would, in his mind, be a threat to world peace), Greenglass agreed to comply; to the extent that he could, Greenglass provided information on the layout of the camp, and the nature and progress of the work being carried out there. [13] [14] [15]

Following the arrest and confession of British physicist and Soviet agent Klaus Fuchs (no relation to Herbert Fuchs), in the spring of 1950, Moscow attempted to facilitate an escape behind the Iron Curtain for the Greenglasses and the Rosenbergs; the attempt failed. Ultimately, it was the confession of Harry Gold, the Greenglass's courier who admitted having received information about atomic research from both Fuchs and David Greenglass, which led to the arrest and confessions of Greenglass and his wife Ruth and then, that summer, to the arrest and incarceration of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Cryptanalysts were able to identify agent "Antenna," (later "Liberal") as Julius Rosenberg through proper names used in the Venona decrypts for people associated with him. Thus, cable #1840 from September 21, 1944, mentions Ruth Greenglass by name as "the wife of his wife's brother." Another, from July ‘44, refers to Max Elichter as his college friend, and another, #1657, from November 27, 1944, describes Liberal's wife as "ETHEL. 29 years old. Married five years. Finished secondary school... sufficiently well developed politically...." [16] Later, communications were uncovered that actually contained Rosenberg's real name. [17]

The Venona cables and KGB files do not support the claim that Julius Rosenberg, himself, released the secrets of the atomic bomb. "Rosenberg's involvement with the atomic bomb," says historian Ellen Schrecker, "seems to have been a genuine fluke, made possible by the army's assignment of his wife's brother, David Greenglass, to the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos site." [18] The new evidence has confirmed that Ethel Rosenberg, who appears to have been aware of her husband's activities, was not an active participant. The government lacked evidence to justify her conviction but the prosecutors had hoped to use her death sentence as leverage to convince her husband to confess; they were sorely disappointed, as both Julius and Ethel denied everything.

In 2008, Morton Sobell, the co-defendant in the Rosenberg trial, who was convicted and who served almost 18 years in prison, acknowledged for the first time that he and Julius Rosenberg had passed military/industrial information to the Soviets. Sobell indicated that their chief motivation for doing this was to contribute to the defeat of the Nazis. [19]

Since the release of the Venona cables, the publication of the archives, the confession of Morton Sobell and statements by Alexander Feklisov, people are now convinced of Julius Rosenberg's involvement with the Russians. [20] Even Rosenberg's most loyal defenders have acknowledged their doubts about his innocence. In a review of Ronald Radosh's memoir, Commies, [21] Martin Duberman concedes that "As to Julius, the Venona evidence has changed minds on the left." [22] The Nation's Victor Navasky admits to having moved "'from agnosticism to the belief that Julius did something.'" So too historian Eric Foner, who has had a change of opinion "'to some extent,' but only toward accepting the possibility that Julius (not Ethel) may have engaged in some sort of low-level espionage." [23] Even defenders Walter and Miriam Schneir have backed off from their insistence of Julius's innocence after reading the Venonas. Owning up to the pain caused by their acceptance of the new evidence, the Schneirs have admitted being convinced that Julius Rosenberg was the leader of a group "'gathering and passing non-atomic defense information.'" [24] Historian Ellen Schrecker has also become convinced. "There is now just too much evidence from too many different sources," says Schrecker, "to make it possible for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss, Rosenberg, and the others." [25]

On the website of his Rosenberg Fund for Children, Robbie Meeropol summarizes his current understanding of his parents' involvement with the Soviets as follows: "Julius Rosenberg engaged in non-atomic espionage during World War II. Neither Julius nor Ethel Rosenberg was a member of an atomic spy ring that stole the secret of the Atomic Bomb. The United States government knew all along that Ethel Rosenberg was not an espionage agent, but executed her anyway." [26]

Though more than a half-century has passed since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed and in spite of the evidence revealed in the Venona documents and secret Soviet archives, the Rosenbergs have remained, for some, icons of the Left, the victims of a massive government frame-up and heroes of their cause.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood, 327-34.

[2] See Robert and Michael Meeropol, We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, (Boston: Houghton Miffin Company, 1975).

[3] Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America -- The Soviet Era (New York: Random House, 1999), 173-74.

[4] See Venona cables

#628, New York to Moscow, 5 May, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/5may_new_agent.pdf

#736, New York to Moscow, 22 May, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/22may_spycraft.pdf

#845, New York to Moscow, 14 June, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/14jun_rosenberg_spycraft.pdf

#911, New York to Moscow, 27 June, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1044/27jun_new_asset_recrutited_rosenberg.pdf

#1053, New York to Moscow, 26 June 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/26jul_recruitment_effort_rosenberg.pdf

#1251, New York to Moscow, 2 September 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/2sept_covername_changes.pdf

#1314, New York to Moscow, 14 September, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/14sep_gnome_gets_raise.pdf

#1327, New York to Moscow, 15 September,1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/15sep_specs_robot_aircraft.pdf

#1340, New York to Moscow, 21 September 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/21sep_recruitment_by_rosenberg.pdf

#1491, New York to Moscow, 22 October 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/22oct_new_assets.pdf

#1600, New York to Moscow, 14 November, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/14nov_recruitment_by_Rosenberg.pdf

#1609, New York to Moscow, 17 November, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/17nov_resupply_film_cassettes.pdf

#1657, New York to Moscow, 27 November, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/27nov_mrs_rosenberg.pdf

#1715, New York to Moscow, 5 December, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/5dec_various_agents.pdf

#1749-1750, New York to Moscow, 13 December, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/13dec_garbled_rqst.pdf

#1773, New York to Moscow, 16 December, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/16dec_los_alamos.pdf

#1797, New York to Moscow, 20 December, 1944;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/20dec_new_lab.pdf

#28, New York to Moscow, 8 January, 1945;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/8jan_victor.pdf

#200, Moscow to New York, 6 March, 1945;

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/6mar_liberal_gets_raise.pdf

#325, Moscow to New York, 5 April, 1945

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/5apr_liberal_fellowcountrymen.pdf

[5] See Alexander Feklisov and Sergei Kostin, The Man Behind The Rosenbergs (New York: Enigma Books, 2001); Sam Roberts, The Brother: The Untold Story of Atomic Spy David Greenglass and How He Sent His Sister, Ethel Rosenberg, to the Electric Chair (New York: Random House, 2001); Radosh and Milton, The Rosenberg File, 2nd edition; Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood; John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, Spies, The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009).

[6] In his book, The Man Behind the Rosenbergs (New York: Enigma Books, 2001), Alexander Feklisov, the case officer in charge of Rosenberg's group, asserts that Rosenberg's principal contribution to the Russians was technical data about U.S. military electronics.

[7] For more about the type of material the files and cables indicate Rosenberg was supplying see Radosh and Milton, The Rosenberg File, 2nd edition, xviii.

[8] Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood, 174, 177.

[9] Ibid., 172-78.

[10] Ibid., 198.

[11] Ibid., 199-2000.

[12] David Greenglass, who originally claimed that his sister Ethel had typed some documents, recanted on December 5, 2001 in an appearance on the Sixty Minutes show. Greenglass admitted he had lied to the court in order to help in his own defense and that of his wife Ruth.

[13] Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood, 201-202.

[14] Venona cable #28, New York to Moscow, 8 January, 1945.

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/8jan_victor.pdf

[15] Greenglass provided sketches (of arguable value) of a mold used in the mechanism for detonating the bomb. For discussion over whether or not these sketches revealed significant information see Radosh and Milton, The Rosenberg File, 2nd edition, xxvi.

[16] Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, The Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth, 2nd edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), xvi.

[17] See John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, Spies, 105.

[18] Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1998), 177.

[19] http://www.rfc.org/caseoverview

[20] In the second edition of their book, The Rosenberg File, authors Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton describe several pieces of evidence which surfaced since their first edition to implicate the Rosenbergs. The first is the memoir of the late Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, who, in a book in 1990, refers to the Rosenbergs, saying that he hoped his words would "‘serve as an expression of gratitude to those who sacrificed their lives to a great cause of the Soviet state at a time when the U.S. was using its advantage over our state to blackmail our state and undermine its proletarian cause.'" The second involves discoveries confirming that Rosenberg friends and fellow group members Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant, did in fact escape behind the Iron Curtain when they disappeared after the arrests of Julius Rosenberg and David Greenglass. Behind the Iron Curtain, Barr and Sarant became military scientists who, according to Radosh and Milton, "used Western expertise and secrets for the military benefit of the Soviet Union." "Together, Barr and Sarant virtually created the Soviet microelectronics industry." Joel Barr returned to the United States after the fall of the USSR. Though he denies having committed espionage, he has acknowledged that his "disappearance and failure to contact family or friends looked sinister, and he knew that he had a great deal of explaining to do." Radosh and Milton, The Rosenberg File, 2nd edition, xi-xiii.

[21] Ronald Radosh, Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2001).

[22] Duberman, Martin, "A Fellow Traveling," review of Commies: Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left, in The Nation, Vol. 273, No. 3, July 16, 2001, 34.

[23] Ibid., 34-35.

[24] Schneir, Walter and Miriam, "Cryptic Answers," The Nation, August 14/21, 1995

[25] Ellen Schrecker and John Earl Haynes, ‘Schrecker on Haynes' (H-Diplo, 2000), archived at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/lists/

[26] http://www.rfc.org/caseoverview