> I don't mean to nitpick. I remain unclear on what the Rosenbergs were
> executed for. I was a child at the time. I just remember seeing
> Julius and Ethel getting into a truck of some kind. I thought they
> were convicted of "conspiracy". I wasn't aware that the powers that
> were, convicted them of espionage.
>
> Thanks in advance to anyone for clearing this up for me. I think
> that's my three posts for the day.
Technically they were executed for atomic espionage. Actually they were executed because of FBI pressure to force Julius to cooperate. The idea was, Julius once apprehended was supposed to help the FBI "roll up" his espionage ring. You threaten the culprit with death, which is a credible threat, but in return for the culprit's cooperation, you guarantee him a lesser punishment.
JR refused to cooperate. He kept his mouth shut and named nobody.
So, the FBI then threatened to execute his wife. That was supposed to make him talk. But both Julius and Ethel accepted martyrdom instead of cooperating.
Ironically, the VENONA decrypts exculpate Ethel. The KGB officer remarked that her health was too poor to enable her to "work" and the NSA footnote makes clear that "work" meant espionage.
What exactly was the espionage? That is not clear from the VENONA decrypts. It was involved with our atomic weapons program, but specifics are lacking. It had something to do with microfilming data relating to atomic weapons, and that's about all that can be inferred. I do not think a prosecutor could base a charge on the information in the decrypts.
But it was not IMO "minor, unimportant" info as somebody here maintained. The respect, indeed awe, that the KGB officers showed Julius, are indications that Julius was a considerable figure. They consulted him, and his opinion was very much respected. His devotion, intelligence, hard work (at one point the decrypts worry about his "work" affecting his health), and loyalty to the cause made him IMO the kind of person who in other circumstances would get medals.
Somebody, I think Schwartz, here said that Julius was framed, though in fact guilty. I think that is correct.
The idea of keeping VENONA secret needs more elaboration. There is an FBI memo by Alan Belmont laying out the evidentiary problems of VENONA. Also, the Soviets already knew about VENONA -- they had been informed at least by Donald MacLean, not to mention an NSA cryptanalyst who got on to the decrypts as Meredith Gardner was doing them. Belmont maintained that the decrypts could not be used as evidence because they were hearsay. They could be used only as expert witness testimony, which he said would lay the decrypts open to defense attack. The decrypts are so sparse and fragmentary, that I could understand his point. Keeping them secret as a favor to the NSA was Belmont's secondary clincher.
BTW, when I say "KGB" I am using the term loosely to mean Soviet Intelligence whether NKVD, MGB, Naval GRU, Military GRU, and whatever else. Similarly, I use "NSA" loosely to mean American cryptographic intelligence whether SIS, ASA, or any other NSA predecessor.
John