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Dear Rachel:

It has been fifty years since your grandparents’ execution, and it is understandable that you should still cling to the idea of their innocence. But in the decades since 1953, we have learned much about your grandfather, Julius Rosenberg, and the contributions he made to the Soviet Union as an active espionage agent. We also know that your grandmother -- Ethel Rosenberg -- was not an innocent housewife as many of those who concede her husband’s guilt maintain. The Venona cables prove conclusively that she was a knowledgeable accessory to your father’s espionage, and that she also recommended others to be recruited to the KGB. In a conspiracy case, that alone is sufficient for a person to be included in an indictment.

But you seem unable to grasp that the case against your grandparents was part of an effort to break an important Soviet espionage network, one that your grandfather put together. Instead you insist on referring to it as a political trial meant to serve as a warning to the “progressive” Left, to strike fear into their hearts and to prove that “left-wingers were really agents of a foreign power.” As though this were not indeed the truth, at least in the case of active spies.

Why can’t you admit that the Venona decrypts conclusively prove that American Communists were indeed agents of a foreign power? The same decrypts show that your father put together a network of seven primary sources and two active liaison-couriers, as well as three others who carried out support work. All of these people were recruited, as was your grandfather, from the ranks of the American Communist Party. Your grandfather stole top secret military data, including the proximity fuse that years later the Soviets used to shoot down Major Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 plane. Klehr and Haynes refer to the fuse as “one of the most innovative advances of American military technology,” for which Moscow awarded your grandfather a $1,000 bonus in March 1945.

Of course, we also know that the death sentence for your grandmother was intended by the prosecution as a “lever” to pressure your grandfather to confess so they could move against his ring. But the government never expected to carry these executions out; indeed, even J. Edgar Hoover sent a memo opposing the execution of your grandmother. But as Communist true believers, they refused to confess, preferring martyrdom -- and making their own children orphans -- to telling the truth and saving their lives. Your great uncle, David Greenglass, who also sought to stop the execution, put it accurately when he said that your grandparents “could have cleared themselves.” All they had to do was tell the truth.

In the end the truth remains that your grandparents were traitors who betrayed their country and their sons for an illusion. They acted with courage, but for a cause that was corrupt. By recognizing this you would restore their humanity, and perhaps heal the wound you obviously still feel. Instead, you have chosen to continue the charade, pretending that their cause was noble and that they were heroes of an American “resistance.” Resistance to what?

For your own sake, I hope you are mentally prepared for the inevitable day when the KGB’s own archives reveal that your grandparents were guilty. Get ready, because it’s going to be soon.

Sincerely,

TSchmerel

[completely plagiarized from a letter written by Ron Radosh to your father].