60 MINUTES. Rosenbergs, Lockheed Fighter

[Bill Greenwood]

CBS show, 60 Minutes had a fascinating section last night, focused on the two children of the Rosenbergs. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a N Y couple who were accused, tried and executed in the 50s as spies who gave Russia atomic bomb secrets.
There was an enormous amount of interest in the case back then, with no less than Einstein and Pope Pius asking Pres Ike to spare them, especially Ethel who many believed was innocent and a Mother.
All these years later some disputed facts are now known::
1.The sons always believed their parents were innocent of spying but were political victims, as Communist Party members.
2, In fact, the Father was a full fledged spy for Russia and recruited others, even though a U S Army vet.
3, They did not really get much of atomic secrets, but Julius did pass other miltary secrects , one of which was a full set of plans and specs for Lockheeds new P-80 JET FIGHTER.
4.The KGB handler confirmed Julius working for them, and after 50 years Marty Sobell finally asmitted that yes he and Julius were spies. KGB man said Ethel was not a spy for Russia, nver has any sort of code name for instance.
5. Ethel had been accused of typing notes of stolen info on Atomic bomb fuse, by her own brother, another spy David Greenglass. Now he admits that this story was a lie, may have been given to him by the FBI and he provided the false testimony to spare he and his wife.
6. Govt could secretly intercept and read coded Russian messages, and knew about Julius. They targeted Ethel also to force Juluis to provide more info about Russian contacts, not expecting Ethel to be sacrificed in the end.The att gen later said, "She called our bluff". Neither "talked" tp the end.
7. The sons acknowlege their Fathers guilt but ask for the Moms name to be cleared. She may have known somewhat about what Julius did, but was not an active spy herself and didn not desrvers a fatal sentence in any case, which was based only on testimony, some of which we now know is false. The judge claimed the parents had endangered our soldiers, but it was not true for Ethel, and she was if anything a victim of rage about Atomic secrets at that time.
8. With the apparent FBI overstating the case, maybe even to falsely framing Ethel, the chief prosecute was Roy Cohn who was later assistant to Joe McCarthy in his communist witch hunt and disbarred because of it. Please Google Cohn there is a lot of negative info on him and one part amazingly is pertinent in todays headlines and news.
Ive given a bare bones summary of a long and complex case, I am sure someone can find flaws to dispute, or they could share an interesting, if sad part of history.