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To summarize kind of: Let's not defend the indefensible, but
on the other hand I don't have to take National Review's
word for it. If the National Review wants to smear some
dead old lefty based on the decrypts the decrypts had
better be there and support the smear.
>> I remember reading recently that "Wild Bill" Donovan, head of the wartime OSS, once passed secret info to a high-ranking GPU official over lunch in Washington. It was merely a way of establishing confidence with a military ally during the darkest days of WW2 -- no big deal. But it illustrates the point that context is all important. If Rosenberg was guilty, it was not of espionage but of bad timing, i.e. being a member of the CPUSA after the wartime alliance had passed.
Dan Lazare