Rosenbergs

[SanJuanStar]

Originally Posted by markg91359

What the government wanted and did not get out of the Rosenbergs' was not so much a confession, but statements that would have revealed the names other people involved in a conspiracy to commit espionage against the United States. Undoubtedly, there were other people who were doing so that were never discovered. Threatening the Rosenbergs' in this case with the death penalty was more of an investigative technique than it was anything else. The government wanted to know more and the refusal of either Julius or Ethel Rosenberg to talk brought the investigation that started with Fuchs, Gold, and Greenglass to an end.

I've pondered the unwillingness of the Rosenbergs' to cooperate with the government even when they knew it meant they would be executed and their children left orphans. The Rosenbergs' were ideologues that seemed to value some communist ideology more than their own children. That truly is hard for me to imagine.

The reality is that probably up to the very moment of their execution in the electric chair Julius and Ethel could have saved themselves by naming names and assisting the government in its investigation. The director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, James Bennett, was given the assignment of remaining at Sing Sing Prison up to the time they were executed in hopes such a statement would be given. Bennett attempted to talk to the Rosenbergs' while they were on the death row and they made it clear they had nothing to talk to him about.

What does occur to me is that once they were dead the possibility of them talking in the future had been foreclosed. If they had been given life in prison perhaps there is a greater likelihood that they would have talked at some point. I suppose that is why I felt executing them was not a good idea.

I understand the other side of not executing them. Hopefully We will never get to that level of 1941-1952 of WW 2 and the Cold War back to get to the level that the government execute civilians but they had a choice unlike the 450,000 Americans that died from 1941-1952 that are unknown to many of us and couldn't even be buried back home.

I think if they were traitors during the Revolution War or Civil War, they would have been executed the same but hanging or shot.

If it was me and I have 2 children, I would be singing like a canary. They already know I'm guilty so why make them look like fools. Strike a deal, you are already worthless to the Soviet Union and they no longer want any part of you. That's only going to make them make an example of you.