Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs

After the end of World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union were the new two world powers, but because of their difference in governing and their economic systems, the alliance that led them to unite against the Axis powers collapsed.The U.S. was a democracy, supportinga free market, so of course the Americans were afraid from the great power that the Soviet communist dictatorship had and also from Stalin’s ambition to spear communism in the World.After communism took over China and North Korea, the American Government and the public opinion became so afraid of the possibility that Marx’s idea could develop also in the United States itself. So in the early 1950's, the Congress approved two pieces of legislation; the International Security Act, also known as the McCarran act (1950).The purpose of this act was to punish the people who were suspected to holding radical believes, such like attempting to turn the U.S. into a dictatorship.Even though President Truman vetoed the bill, Congress over road the veto and made it law.The big fear of communism and the very hard legislation about those who were suspected to being involved in conspiracies against the State led to two of the most extreme cases of conviction for espionage in the country.The first case happened in 1948 when Mr Wittacher, a former communist spy, accused a man named Alger Hiss to be a Soviet spy by showing some microfilms of government documents that Hiss passed on to the Soviets. Hiss was convicted of perjurysince he told the jury he did not know anything about the documents, the Soviets in the 1990's confirmed that Hiss was spying for them.
The trial against Albert Hiss could not prepare the American public from the acts of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in 1949. Probably one of the biggest, and worst, espionage cases to be recorded, the Rosenbergs were first heard of in the case against Klaus Fich, a physicist who helped the Soviet Union develop their first atomic bomb. The Rosenberg's were minor activists in the American Communist Party and were accused of espionage. During their trials both Ethel and Julius Rosenberg pleaded the Fifth Amendment and stated that they were in court because of their religon, Judaism, and their radical beliefs. Despite the effort of some Americans, the Rosemberg were sentenced to death by the Judge Irving Kaufman who said that their crime, helping the Soviets make their own atomic bomb, was worse than murder.In 1953 the Rosenbergs died on the electric chair, leaving two sons orphaned, and they became the first civilians executed in the United States for espionage.
Alger Hiss, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, even if they were guilty, were caught in a wave of American despair. They became the scapegoats that American politicians blamed for the Cold War. Their names became linked with trouble and synonymous with treason. They will always be known in that dark part of American history. Even if new generations do not remember their names, our history books will never let us forget them.


Silvia and Bisrat