Julius And Ethel Rosenberg During The Cold War

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During the cold war there were many people involved in helping each side gain more of an advantage on the other. Seeing as there were no soldiers this was a war of information and who better to gather information than spies. There were hundreds of Soviet and American spies over the duration of the Cold War. Two of the most infamous spies during the Cold War were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They were instrumental in the transmission of information on the atomic bomb as well as other top secret military technology. In 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and sentenced to death. The Rosenberg’s were the only American Civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War. People debated whether the …show more content…

After graduating from Seward Park High School in 1934 he went onto City College to study electrical engineering. Ethel Greenglass was born September 28, 1915 in Manhattan. The couple met as members of the Young Communist League in 1936. At this time Ethel was working as a secretary. Three years later they were married. They were parents to two boys Michael and Robert. For five years Julius worked at Fort Monmouth for the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratory where important research on electronics, radar, and guided missile controls were being produced during World War II. This became an important time in his life because he began to work as an agent for the Soviet Union. When the Army found out about his connection to the Communist Party in 1945 he was fired. Also during this time he convinced his brother-in-law David Greenglass, who worked on the Manhattan Project which created the atomic bomb, to share information with …show more content…

This was very concerning to the United States because many government officials believed that the Russians would not have this ability this fast. The government started an extensive hunt into how the Russians had acquired this knowledge. Their investigation broke open when the Army Signal Corps broke the Russians code for sending messages. Rosenberg’s ties were discovered during this investigation. David Greenglass was the first to be arrested for espionage. He then told authorities about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg recruiting him. This lead to Julius and Ethel being indicted on August 11th, 1950 along with Morton Sobell a friend of Julius’s from his college and Communist party days. All were being accused of being spies for the Russians. The Rosenberg’s vigorously protested their innocence, but after a brief trial that began on March 6, 1951, and attracted much media attention, the couple was convicted. On April 5, 1951, a judge sentenced them to death. After their trail and conviction the Rosenbergs asked President Eisenhower for clemency. They were ultimately denied. President Eisenhower issued a statement saying, “I can only say that, by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. The execution of two human beings is a

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