ABSTRACT
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were typical victims of the McCarthy era, unique only in the severity of the sentence imposed on them. They were or had been Communists and their trial and execution were the culmination of an intensive five-year campaign to root Communism and all the individuals, ideas, and organizations associated with it out of American life. Whether or not the Rosenbergs were spies, most of their fellow citizens thought they were and assumed that their punishment, though extreme, was justified.
