That's the implication of this fascination with "were they or were they not." That's why the powers that be pay handsomely for anticommunist scholarship, even, or especially, in "the land of the free" where there are few communists. They are not stupid, you see. They are getting their money's worth. It's all about diminishing political freedoms _now_, not about the past.
> Your real beef is with the Communist party. The CP COULD have made
>the kind of hardassed defense you would, if your posts are any judge,
>surely have preferred. Julius rosenberg could have defended his acts
>along the lines you suggest-- and saved Ethel's life (she died to keep
>up the pretense of innocence that you now say is so unimportant -- how
>do you feel about that?) Similarly, Instead of taking the fifth, lying,
>going on and on about their patriotism, going underground, fleeing the
>country etc CP members COULD have defended their right to be communists
>and tried to use the HUAC hearings to explain to people what that meant.
>They would have gone to jail, sure -- but they arguably would have come
>out of the McCarthy era less psychologically damaged and in better
>political shape.
> it was the CP itself that orchestrated the "ceremonies of innocence"
>that so infuriate you now.
Given the CP's wartime patriotism, by the time the political winds changed, they probably couldn't have done otherwise. Besides, if they had argued the way I am doing now, more people might have been executed, not just the Rosenbergs, given the ideological conditions during the pre-60s, post-WW2 America. While some leftists now may appreciate the CP better had they made more dramatically heroic martyrs of themselves, I personally do not want to make such a moralistic demand. To be honorable in my book, they don't have to be superhuman heroes with boundless political virtues and wisdom that they were not and none of us is. About martyrdom, I think Brecht said it best:
***** _Life of Galileo_, Scene 13
The Crier's Voice: 'I, Galileo Galilei, teacher of mathematics and physics in Florence, abjure what I have taught, namely that the sun is the centre of the cosmos and motionless and the earth is not the centre and not motionless. I foreswear, detest and curse, with sincere heart and unfeigned faith, all these errors and heresies as also any error and any further opinion repugnant to Holy Church.
[_It grows dark. When the light returns the bell is still tolling, but then stops. Virginia has left. Galileo's pupils are still there_.]
Federzoni: You know, he never paid you for your work. You could never publish your own stuff or buy yourself new breeches. You stood for it because it was 'working for the sake of science'.
Andrea [_loudly_]: Unhappy the land that has no heroes!
[_Galileo has entered, so completely changed by his trial as to be almost unrecognizable. He has heard Andrea's remark. For a few moments he stands at the gate waiting to be greeted. When he is not, and his pupils back away from him, he goes slowly and, on account of his bad eyes, uncertainly forward till he finds a stool and sits down_.]
Andrea: I can't look at him. Get him away.
Federzoni: Calm down.
Andrea [_yells at Galileo_]: Wine-pump! Snail-eater! Did you save your precious skin? [_Sits down_.] I feel ill.
Galileo [_quietly_]: Give him a glass of water.
[_The little monk fetches Andrea a glass of water from outside. The others do nothing about Galileo, who sits on his stool and listens. Outside the crier's voice can again be heard in the distance._]
Andrea: I think I can walk with a bit of help.
[_They escort him to the door. At this juncture Galileo starts to speak_.]
Galileo: No. Unhappy the land where heroes are needed. *****
Yoshie