Roosevelt responded by instituting massive FDR’s Court Packing Plan A B conservative bloc of judges emerged on the U.S Supreme Court during the 1920s.. Emboldened by his landslide victor
Trang 1that justices be allowed to retire at age seventy at full pay Any justice who declined this offer would be forced to have an assistant with full
VOTING RIGHTS The assistant, of course, as a Roosevelt appointee, would be more likely to be sympathetic to the president’s political ideals
This plan to “pack” the Court was met with hostility by Democrats and Republicans and rejected as an act of political interference
Despite the rejection of his plan, Roosevelt ultimately prevailed In 1937 the Supreme Court upheld the Wagner Act inNLRB V.JONES
AND LAUGHLIN STEEL CORP., 301 U.S 1, 57 S Ct
615, 81 L Ed 893, signaling an end to the invalidation of New Deal laws that sought to reshape the national economy From Jones onward, the Court permitted the federal government to take a dominant role in matters
of commerce
By 1937 the national economy appeared to
be recovering In the fall of 1937, however, the economy went into a recession, accompa-nied by a dramatic increase in unemployment Roosevelt responded by instituting massive
FDR’s Court Packing Plan
A
B
conservative bloc of judges emerged on the
U.S Supreme Court during the 1920s Their
conservatism was marked by a restrictive view of
the federal government’s power to enact a certain
class of regulations falling under the heading of
“administrative law.” Federal administrative law is an
area of law comprised of orders, rules, and
regula-tions that are promulgated by executive branch
agencies that have been delegated quasi-lawmaking
power by Congress Justices Pierce Butler, James
McReynolds, George Sutherland, and Willis Van
Devanter denied that the federal Constitution gave
Congress the power to delegate its lawmaking
function, arguing that Article II of the Constitution
expressly limited the executive branch to a law
enforcement role By the advent of the 1930s, Butler,
McReynolds, Sutherland, and Van Devanter had
become known as the “Four Horseman” because
they consistently voted to strike down every federal
law that involved any congressional delegation of
lawmaking power to the executive branch
The Four Horsemen were usually joined by
Justice Owen Roberts and Chief Justice Charles
Hughes, two conservatives of a more moderate and
centrist temperament Pitted against the
conserva-tive block was the so-called “liberal wing” of the
Court, comprised of Justices Benjamin Cardozo,
Louis Brandeis, and Harlan Stone The Court’s
composition presented a potential problem for
Democrat presidential candidate Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (FDR), who had promised voters a “New
Deal” during the 1932 election After FDR took the
oath of office, it became clear that his New Deal
entailed the creation of a vast federal regulatory
bureaucracy designed to stimulate the U.S econ-omy and pull it out of the depression
The potential problem FDR faced transformed into an immediate crisis during 1935, when the Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that struck blows at the heart of the New Deal First, the Court struck down the Frazier-Lemke Act, a law that provided mortgage relief to farmers Louisville Joint Stock Land Bank v Radford, 295 U.S 555, 55 S.Ct
854, 79 L.Ed 1593 (U.S 1935) Next the Court upheld
a provision of the Federal Trade Commission Act that prohibited the president from replacing a commissioner except for cause, thereby thwarting FDR’s attempt to bring the agencies in line with his regulatory policies Humphrey’s Executor v United States, 295 U.S 602, 55 S.Ct 869, 79 L.Ed 1611 (U.S
1935) Finally, the Court invalidated the National Industrial Recover Act, which authorized the presi-dent to prescribe codes of fair competition to bring about industrial recovery and rehabilitation The Court said that Congress could not delegate such sweeping lawmaking powers to the executive branch without violating separation-of-powers prin-ciples in the federal constitution A.L.A Schechter Poultry Corporation v United States, 295 U.S 495, 55 S.Ct 837, 79 L.Ed 1570 (U.S 1935)
FDR postponed making an issue over the Court’s decisions during the 1936 presidential campaign
But the Court continued invalidating important New Deal programs, including the Agricultural Adjust-ment Act and the National Bituminous Coal Act In some of these cases Chief Justice Hughes sided
428 ROOSEVELT, FRANKLIN DELANO
Trang 2government spending, and by June 1938 the
economy had stabilized
During the late 1930s Roosevelt had also
become preoccupied with foreign policy The
rise of ADOLF HITLER and Nazism in Germany,
coupled with a militaristic Japanese government
that had invaded Manchuria in 1933, created
international tensions that Roosevelt realized
might come to involve the United States U.S
foreign policy had traditionally counseled
against entanglements with other nations, and
the 1930s had seen a resurgence of isolationist
thought Roosevelt, while publicly agreeing with isolationist legislators, quietly moved to en-hance U.S military strength
With the outbreak of World War II in Europe in August 1939, Roosevelt sought to aid Great Britain and France against Germany and Italy The Neutrality Act of 1939 (22 U.S.C.A § 441), however, prohibited the export of arms to any belligerent With some difficulty Roosevelt secured the repeal of this provision so that military equipment could be sold to Great Britain and France
with the three dissenting liberal justices, leaving
Justice Roberts as the swing vote Emboldened by
his landslide victory, FDR unveiled what critics
called the“Court Packing Plan.”
The plan, which FDR announced on February 5,
1937, would have given the president the power to
add one justice for every Supreme Court justice
over age 70, up to a total of six The older justices
were not able to handle the increasing workload,
FDR explained, so the additional justices would
improve the Court’s efficiency
Much of the nation saw through FDR’s
explana-tion Newspaper editors, Republicans, southern and
moderate Democrats, leaders of the organized bar,
and even the three liberals on the Supreme Court
condemned the plan as a blatant effort to politicize
the Court Roosevelt, however, remained committed
to the plan and continued pushing Congress to
enact it By April the Supreme Court appeared to
have received the president’s message
In NLRB v Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301
U.S 1, 30, 57 S.Ct 615, 621, 81 L.Ed 893 (1937), the
Supreme Court by a 5–4 vote upheld the
constitu-tionality of the National Labor Relations Board, a
federal regulatory agency that investigates and
remedies unfair labor practices Justice Roberts
cast the deciding vote Thereafter Roberts typically
voted to uphold the constitutionality of New Deal
legislation that was challenged before the Court
Journalists called Roberts’ change of heart “the
switch in time that saved nine.” Combined with Van
Devanter’s retirement later that year, which allowed
FDR to replace him with a justice more amenable to
federal regulatory programs, Roberts’ move to the
left of the political spectrum doomed the Court
Packing Plan, as both Congress and the American
people realized that the president had achieved his goal without subverting the Court
Throughout U.S history presidents have sought to mold the federal courts in their own political image On balance presidents have filled the courts with high quality judges possessing strong intellects and fair-minded temperaments On occasion, however, pre-sidents have also become frustrated with the federal bench, especially the Supreme Court But never has any president attempted to do what President Roosevelt tried to accomplish through the Court Packing Plan, namely change the rules of the game
by which vacancies on the Court are created and filled
Neither death nor resignation on the Court was giving the president the opportunity to shape the Court in the fashion he desired By proposing to expand the court to as many as 15 justices, FDR could have wielded influence over the Court’s jurisprudence for the next generation or two But
he could also have compromised the independence
of the federal judiciary by turning it into an overtly political branch Article III of the U.S Constitution gives federal courts the power to interpret and apply the laws passed by Congress and enforced by the executive branch Federal judges are given life tenure to insulate them from political pressures
FDR tried to alter that equation with the Court Packing Plan Although the Supreme Court eventu-ally placed its imprimatur of approval on the New Deal, the Court Packing Plan was defeated in what history has deemed a victory for the independence
of the federal judiciary
FURTHER READING McKenna, Marian C 2002 Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Constitutional War: The Court-Packing Crisis of 1937 New York: Fordham Univ Press.
B
Trang 3In 1940 Roosevelt took the unprecedented step of seeking a third term Although there was
no constitutional prohibition against a third term, President GEORGE WASHINGTON had estab-lished the tradition of serving only two terms
Nevertheless, Roosevelt was concerned about the approach of war and decided a third term was necessary to continue his plans He defeated the Republican nominee, Wendell L Willkie, pledging that he would keep the United States out of war Roosevelt’s margin of victory in the popular vote was closer than in 1936, but he still won theELECTORAL COLLEGEvote easily
Following his reelection, Roosevelt became more public in his support of the Allies At his urging, Congress moved further away from neutrality by passing theLEND-LEASE ACTof 1941 (55 Stat 31) Lend-Lease provided munitions, food, machinery, and services to Great Britain and other Allies without immediate cost
The United States entered World War II following the Japanese attack on the U.S naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7,
1941 Roosevelt rallied a stunned citizenry and began the mobilization of a wartime economy
In his public speeches and “fireside chats” on the radio, Roosevelt imparted the strong determination that the United States would prevail in the conflict, and he led the nation in a now-famous prayer during the D-Day invasion
He met with Winston Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain, andJOSEPH STALIN, the leader of the Soviet Union, several times during the war to discuss military strategy and to plan power-sharing in the postwar world Roosevelt, who needed the Soviet Union’s cooperation
in defeating Germany, sought to minimize conflicts with Stalin over postwar boundaries
in Europe
In 1944 Roosevelt decided to run for a fourth term Though his health had seriously declined, he wished to remain commander in chief for the remainder of the war The
REPUBLICAN PARTY nominated Governor THOMAS
E.DEWEY of New York for president, but again Roosevelt turned back the challenge, winning
432 electoral votes to Dewey’s 99
In February 1945, Roosevelt traveled to Yalta
in the Crimea to meet with Churchill and Stalin
Germany was on the edge of defeat, but Japan’s defeat did not appear imminent Stalin accepted Roosevelt and Churchill’s offer of territorial concessions in Asia in return for his promise that the Soviet Union would enter the war
against Japan once Germany was defeated At Yalta the leaders reaffirmed earlier agreements and made plans for the establishment of democratic governments in eastern Europe The Yalta agreements were not clearly written, however, and therefore were open to differing interpretations by the Allies Within a month after Yalta, Roosevelt sent a sharp message to Stalin concerning Soviet accusations that Great Britain and the United States were trying to rob the Soviets of their legitimate territorial interests Early in the war, Roosevelt decided that an effective international organization should be established after the war to replace theLEAGUE OF NATIONS At Yalta, Roosevelt pressed for the creation of theUNITED NATIONS as a mechanism
to preserve world peace A conference attended
by 50 nations was scheduled to begin on April
25, 1945, in San Francisco, California, to draft a United Nations charter Roosevelt had planned
to attend, but his health had steadily declined since the 1944 election
Instead, Roosevelt went to his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia, where he had begun his rehabilitation from polio in the 1920s He died there on April 12, 1945 Vice PresidentHARRY S
TRUMANsucceeded Roosevelt On May 7, the war
in Europe ended with Germany’s surrender; four months later, on September 2, Japan also surrendered, ending the war in the Pacific FURTHER READINGS
Jenkins, Roy 2003 Franklin Delano Roosevelt New York: Times Books
Kline, Stephan O 1999 “Revisting FDR’s Court Packing Plan: Are the Current Attacks on Judicial Independence
So Bad? ” McGeorge Law Review 30 (spring).
McElvaine, Robert S 2002 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.
CROSS REFERENCES
“First Inaugural Address” (Appendix, Primary Document); New Deal.
vROOSEVELT, THEODORE Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to
1909 A writer, explorer, and soldier, as well as
a politician, Roosevelt distinguished himself as president by advocating conservation of natural resources, waging legal battles against economic monopolies and trusts, and exercising leader-ship in foreign affairs An energetic man with
a colorful personality, Roosevelt later sought to reclaim the presidency in 1912 as the head of thePROGRESSIVE PARTY
430 ROOSEVELT, THEODORE
Trang 4Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in
New York City, a descendant of a wealthy and
aristocratic family that first settled in New York
in the 1600s A sickly boy, Roosevelt developed
a regimen of diet and exercise that transformed
him into a vigorous young man He graduated
from Harvard University in 1880 and was
elected to the New York State Assembly in 1881
Roosevelt resigned in 1884, following the
death of his wife, and spent two years at his
ranch in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory
During this period he developed both his
association with the Wild West world of
cowboys and his appreciation of the wilderness
He returned to New York City in 1886 and ran
unsuccessfully for mayor From 1889 to 1895
Roosevelt served as aCIVIL SERVICEcommissioner
in Washington, D.C In 1895 he was appointed
as a reform-minded New York City police
commissioner His main occupation, however,
was that of writer: he wrote many magazine
articles and twelve books between 1880 and
1900
Roosevelt’s rise to national prominence
came during theSPANISH-AMERICAN WARof 1898
Anxious to be a part of the forces that would go
to Cuba, he organized a group of cowboys and
New York aristocrats into a cavalry regiment
nicknamed the Rough Riders As a lieutenant
colonel, Roosevelt became a national hero and
darling of the national news media when he led
his Rough Riders to victory at the Battle of San
Juan Hill in July 1898
The New York REPUBLICAN PARTY, under the
leadership of Senator Thomas C Platt,
nomi-nated Roosevelt for governor in 1898, in the
hope that his popularity could rescue a party
plagued by scandal Roosevelt was easily elected but soon offended party leaders by asserting his political independence Platt became so frus-trated with Roosevelt’s reform agenda that
he persuaded President WILLIAM MCKINLEY to make Roosevelt his vice presidential running mate in 1900 Reluctantly, Roosevelt accepted the nomination His popularity helped McKinley
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Theodore Roosevelt 1858–1919
1858 Born,
New York
City
1861–65 U.S Civil War
1880 Graduated from Harvard University
1884–86 Retreated to his ranch in the Badlands
of the Dakota Territory after death of first wife 1889–95 Served as
civil service commissioner in Washington, D.C.
◆ ◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆
1895 Appointed New York City police commissioner
1901–09 Served as U.S.
president
1914–18 World War I
1919 Died, Oyster Bay, N.Y.
1912 Ran unsuccessful campaign for president with the Progressive party
1906 Pressured Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act; won Nobel Peace Prize
1905 Negotiated end to Russo-Japanese War
1902 Initiated construction on the Panama Canal;
negotiated settlement of coal miners' strike
1898 Led the Rough Riders to victory at the Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War; elected governor of New York
1901 President William McKinley assassinated;
Roosevelt assumed the presidency
Trang 5win a second term On September 6, 1901,
an anarchist named Leon F Czolgosz shot McKinley when he visited the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York Eight days later McKinley died and Roosevelt assumed the presidency
As president, Roosevelt sought to attack corruption and to promote economic and political reform He insisted that government should be the ARBITER of economic conflicts between capital and labor He demonstrated his convictions by negotiating a settlement of a strike between coal miners and mine operators in 1902, the first time a president had intervened in a labor dispute Roosevelt referred to his platform for business and labor as the Square Deal
Roosevelt won public acclaim for being a
“trust buster.” By the early twentieth century, a few large companies in key industries, including railroads, oil, and steel, had stifled competition and created monopolies In one of his first major acts, Roosevelt filed suit to dissolve the Northern Securities Company, a trust con-trolled by the three major railroads in the Northwest Using theSHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT OF
1890 (15 U.S.C.A § 1 et seq.), the Roosevelt administration successfully broke up Northern Securities; antitrust lawsuits against 43 other major corporations soon followed
In 1904 the Republican Party nominated Roosevelt for a second term He easily defeated the Democratic candidate Alton B Parker of New York In his second term Roosevelt helped enact several groundbreaking pieces of federal legislation Spurred in part by public concern over the unsanitary food packing methods revealed by Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, Roosevelt pressured Congress and the meat packing industry to support the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (21 U.S.C.A § 601 et seq.) In 1906, Congress also passed the Pure Food and Drug Act (21 U.S.C.A § 301 et seq.), which criminalized the misleading and harmful sale of patent medicines that made false claims about their medicinal effects The act estab-lished the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, putting in place a federal agency dedicated to
CONSUMER PROTECTION Roosevelt also was instru-mental in the passage of the Hepburn Act of
1906 (34 Stat 584), which increased the powers
of the INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION (ICC), allowing the ICC to inspect the business records
of railroads
Roosevelt became the first president to play
a major international role in foreign policy His favorite motto, based on an African proverb, was “speak softly and carry a big stick.” The motto epitomized Roosevelt’s foreign policy, as
he increased the size of the U.S Navy and sent the fleet around the world in 1908 to demon-strate both U.S military strength and U.S involvement in world affairs
Roosevelt initiated the construction of the Panama Canal in 1902, reduced domestic discord by making an agreement with Japan
on limiting the number of Japanese immigrants
to the United States, and negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 at a peace conference held in Portsmouth, Maine
He earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating the peace agreement
Perhaps the most innovative aspect of Roosevelt’s presidency was his commitment to the conservation of natural resources He lobbied successfully for funds to convert large portions of federal land into national forests
In seven years 194 million additional acres
of federal land were closed to commercial development, five times more than his three predecessors had reserved for conservation purposes Roosevelt also approved the Newlands Act of 1903 (32 Stat 388), which called for part of the receipts from the sale of
PUBLIC LANDSin the western states and territories
to be reserved for dams and reclamation projects The legislation saved much western wildlife from extinction
Despite his relative youth and energy, Roosevelt declined to run for another term His progressive reforms had angered many conservative Republicans in Congress In addi-tion, his public comments on“race suicide,” in which he lamented the declining birthrate of U.S citizens of northern European ancestry and the accelerating birthrate of Russian and southern European immigrants, troubled many people He approved the Republican presiden-tial nomination of his secretary of war,WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, in the belief that Taft was a progressive Republican Taft won the presi-dency in November 1908
After leaving office in March 1909, Roose-velt spent ten months in Africa on a hunting trip and then visited Europe Upon his return
to the United States in 1910, he was shocked at Taft’s capitulation to the conservative Republicans
NO MAN IS ABOVE
THE LAW AND NO
MAN IS BELOW IT;
NOR DO WE ASK ANY
MAN’S PERMISSION
WHEN WE ASK HIM
TO OBEY IT
—T HEODORE "T EDDY "
R OOSEVELT
432 ROOSEVELT, THEODORE
Trang 6in Congress His animosity toward Taft grew,
and in 1912 Roosevelt declared his candidacy
for the Republican presidential nomination
Although he won most of the primaries, the
Republican Party leaders controlled enough
votes to give the nomination to Taft
Un-daunted, Roosevelt formed aTHIRD PARTY, called
the Progressive Party Following a failed
ASSASSI-NATION attempt against him in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, in October 1912, he said that it
would take more than that to kill a bull moose
Thereafter, the Progressives were nicknamed
the Bull Moose Party
Roosevelt won more votes than Taft, but the
division of Republican strength allowed
Demo-crat WOODROW WILSON to be elected president
Roosevelt grew to despise Wilson and his
policies, leveling harsh criticism against
Wil-son’s foreign policy Incensed when Wilson
denied him the opportunity to form a regiment
and fight inWORLD WAR I, Roosevelt denounced
Wilson’s proposal for the LEAGUE OF NATIONS,
even though Roosevelt himself had once
advocated such an organization
Roosevelt’s health deteriorated rapidly in his
last years He died on January 6, 1919, at his
home in Oyster Bay, New York
FURTHER READINGS
Burns, James MacGregor 2001 The Three Roosevelts:
Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America New York:
Atlantic Monthly.
Holmes, James 2003 “Police Power: Theodore Roosevelt,
American Diplomacy, and World Order ” Fletcher
Forum of World Affairs 27 (winter–spring).
Posner, Theodore R., and Timothy M Reif 2000 “Homage
to a Bull Moose: Applying Lessons of History to Meet
the Challenges of Globalization ” Fordham International
Law Journal 24 (November–December).
Rauchway, Eric 2003 Murdering Mckinley: The Making
of Theodore Roosevelt’s America New York: Hill and
Wang.
CROSS REFERENCES
Antitrust Law; Monopoly.
ROSENBERGS TRIAL
In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
convicted of CONSPIRACY to commit ESPIONAGE
for helping the Soviet Union acquire the secrets
to the atomic bomb from the United States
duringWORLD WAR II Judge Irving R Kaufman,
who presided at the trial, sentenced the
Rosenbergs to death after concluding that their
“betrayal undoubtedly altered the course
of history to the disadvantage of [the United States].” The Rosenbergs maintained their innocence from the time of their arrest until they were executed Their two sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol, have spent much of their adult lives attempting to clear their parents’
names However, during the mid-1990s evidence
of their espionage was revealed when the National Security Agency (NSA) released inter-cepted messages of their Soviet handlers
Morton Sobell (born April 11, 1917), a former employee of the Naval Bureau of Ordnance, was also indicted for conspiracy to commit espionage with the Rosenbergs and was named as a codefendant During June 1950 Sobell fled to Mexico with his wife under an assumed name After being apprehended and extradited back to the United States, Sobell was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 30 years
in prison He was paroled in January 1969
Both of the Rosenbergs were members of the American Communist Party Julius had come from an impoverished background He had received a degree in electrical engineering from City College of New York but had had trouble obtaining and keeping employment At the time of his arrest, he was struggling to run a small machine shop with Ethel’s brother, David
A New York jury convicted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of conspiracy to commit espionage They were executed in 1953.
AP IMAGES
Trang 7Greenglass Like her husband, Ethel had come from a poor family
The Rosenbergs’ trial has been the subject of legal, political, and historical controversy for nearly half a century Some view the Rosenbergs
as martyred victims of the communist hysteria that menaced the political landscape in the United States during the 1950s Others see them
as criminals who were singularly responsible for ending the U.S nuclear monopoly and compromising the security of millions of people
The picture painted by historians has always been incomplete because many documents concerning the Rosenbergs remain classified
The U.S government did not indict the Rosenbergs forTREASONand might have encoun-tered constitutional difficulties if it had pursued such anINDICTMENT Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution defines treason as giving“aid and comfort” to the enemies of the United States
DuringWORLD WAR II, the Soviet Union was an ally, not an enemy, of the United States
Further, the Constitution requires that every
“overt act of treason” be witnessed by two persons Yet, as the trial revealed, many of the conspiratorial acts committed by the Rosen-bergs were witnessed by only one person
The Rosenbergs’ trial began on March 6,
1951, at the federal courthouse in New York City
Spectators and members of the press packed the gallery, the hallways, and the courthouse steps in an effort to catch a glimpse of the so-called atom spies in what some observers called the“trial of the century.” Judge Kaufman conducted the VOIR DIRE and impaneled a jury
in less than two days Irving Saypol was the chief prosecuting attorney and was assisted
by ROY COHN and James Kilsheimer Julius Rosenberg was represented by Emanuel Bloch, while Emanuel’s father, Alexander Bloch, repre-sented Ethel
The Prosecution’s Case The first witness against the Rosenbergs was Max Elitcher, a 32-year-old electrical engineer employed by the Naval Bureau of Ordnance during the 1940s Elitcher testified that in June
1944 Julius asked him to assist the Soviet Union
by providing classified information about naval equipment Over the next several years, Elitcher said, Julius had made other references to his central role in a Soviet espionage ring with members scattered across the United States
Nonetheless, Elitcher maintained that he had never disclosed any confidential information to the Rosenbergs
Elitcher also provided the only testimony against Sobell Elitcher told the jurors that on several occasions Sobell had attempted to entice him to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union Elitcher recalled one instance when he had accompanied Sobell on a drive to Knickerbocker Village, where theDEFENDANThad delivered a can of film to Julius Rosenberg Although Elitcher was unable to tell the court what, if anything, had been inside the can, he did testify that Sobell had described the contents
as “too valuable to be destroyed and too dangerous to keep around.”
David Greenglass, the 29-year-old brother
of Ethel Rosenberg, was the prosecution’s second witness Greenglass, a member of the American Communist Party, had enlisted in the army as a machinist in 1943 In July 1944,
he had been assigned to the Manhattan Project, the top secret Allied program based in Los Alamos, New Mexico, for the development of the atomic bomb As part of his job, Greenglass had performed research on high explosives Greenglass testified that he had learned about the nature of the Manhattan Project in November 1944, when his wife, Ruth, had visited him in Albuquerque Before leaving for New Mexico, Ruth had been invited to the Rosenbergs’ apartment in New York City, where Ethel had disclosed that Julius had been sharing classified information with the Soviets During the same visit, Julius had informed Ruth that her husband had been working on a project
to develop an atomic bomb and proposed that David help the Soviets by stealing secrets from Los Alamos Upon learning of Julius’s invitation from Ruth, David testified that he had agreed
to engage in atomic espionage for the Soviet Union
In January 1945, David went home to New York City on furlough and met with the Rosenbergs David testified that during one visit
he had provided Julius with a verbal description
of the atomic bomb, explaining that the Los Alamos scientists were designing a high-explosive lens mold David had accompanied this description with a packet of sketches outlining the mold He also had provided Julius with a list of the scientists who had been working on the Manhattan Project and an
434 ROSENBERGS TRIAL
Trang 8overview of the Los Alamos facilities Because
some of the written material had been illegible,
David told the jury, Ethel had typed his notes
A few days later, the Greenglasses had eaten
dinner at the Rosenbergs’, where they had
designed a plan for David to exchange
informa-tion in New Mexico with a courier whom Julius
would send To enable David to identify this
courier, Julius had cut a Jell-O brand gelatin
box into two irregularly shaped pieces, given
one piece to David, and said the other piece
would be given to the courier
The next summer, Ruth had rented an
apartment in Albuquerque, where David usually
had spent the weekends During the first
weekend in June, a man had visited the
Greenglass apartment, identifying himself as
“Dave from Pittsburgh.” The man had told the
Greenglasses that he was a courier sent by
“Julius.” After the courier had produced the
matching half of the Jell-O box, David had
given him some additional sketches of the lens
mold experiments
In September 1945 David had returned to
New York City on a second furlough Meeting
with Julius and Ethel at the Rosenbergs’
apartment, David had drawn a cross section of
the atomic bomb and had described the
implosion principle underlying it David
testi-fied that Ethel again had typed up the written
material, correcting spelling and grammar
where necessary The prosecution asked David
to draw a replica of the sketches that he had
given to the Rosenbergs and the courier The
prosecution then called Walter Koski, a physical
chemist, who testified that the sketches were
“reasonably accurate” and revealed much of
what the government had been attempting to
keep secret at Los Alamos
Ruth Greenglass, who testified next,
corrob-orated the central elements of her husband’s
testimony She testified that she had assisted
David in procuring classified information from
Los Alamos for the Rosenbergs She also
testified that the Rosenbergs had showed her a
mahogany table that they had received from the
Soviets as a token of their appreciation A
portion of the table was hollow, Ruth said, and a
lamp had been inserted so that microfilm
pictures could be taken
As theFEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION(FBI)
had been closing in on the Greenglasses and the
Rosenbergs, Ruth told the jurors, Julius had
developed a plan for David and Ruth to elude law enforcement The plan had called for David and Ruth to travel to Mexico, where a Soviet agent would be waiting with passports and cash
The agent would then escort the Greenglasses to Czechoslovakia or Russia Although Julius had given the Greenglasses more than $4,000 to defect from the United States, Ruth testified that neither she nor David had ever left the country
The primary corroborating witness for the Greenglasses’ testimony was Harry Gold, a 40-year-old chemist who testified that he had been spying for the Soviet Union since 1935 and that he had been working with Anatoli Yakovlev, a Soviet agent, for a number of years
Gold said that Yakovlev had sent him on a vital mission to New Mexico during the first weekend of June 1945
On Saturday, June 2, Yakovlev had instructed Gold to travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he would meet with Klaus Fuchs, a nuclear scientist from Great Britain, who had been working on the Manhattan Project During their meeting, Fuchs had provided Gold with diagrams and had written descriptions of the atomic bomb On a previous occasion, Fuchs had given Gold a complete set
of his notes from Los Alamos In February 1950, Fuchs was captured by British intelligence and confessed to his role in the atomic espionage conspiracy Fuchs, who received a 14-year sentence, identified Gold as the Soviet liaison
he had met in Santa Fe
Gold also testified that the day after meeting with Fuchs, he had traveled to Albuquerque, where he was scheduled to meet a man whom Yakovlev had described only as “Greenglass.”
Yakovlev had given Gold the matching half of the Jell-O box and had told him to bring Greenglass greetings from“Julius.” When Gold had arrived at the Greenglasses’ apartment, a man whom Gold identified as David Greenglass had given him an envelope of drawings and other materials in exchange for $400
Gold testified that he had turned this envelope over to Yakovlev, who had immedi-ately transmitted it to the Soviet Union Gold said that Yakovlev had subsequently thanked him for obtaining such “excellent” and “valu-able” data The prosecution introduced two exhibits to bolster Gold’s testimony, a receipt indicating that Ruth Greenglass had deposited
$400 into her account at the Albuquerque
Trang 9National Bank on June 4, 1945, and a registra-tion card from the Albuquerque Hilton Hotel, signed by Harry Gold on June 3, 1945
The final witness for the prosecution was Elizabeth Bentley, a 44-year-old former Soviet spy who was known to the public as the“Red Spy Queen.” Bentley bragged that as a top-ranking member of the Communist Party in the United States, she had been responsible for pilfering a wide variety of industrial, military, and political secrets Bentley then had become a double agent for the FBI and had been assigned
to infiltrate and expose domestic communist espionage networks
In addition to testifying at the Rosenbergs’ trial, Bentley had testified in a number of cases involving the prosecution of her former com-rades in the American Communist Party In each case, Bentley’s testimony had verged on the theatrical At the Rosenbergs’ trial, she testified that she had received a number of late-night, espionage-related phone calls from a man who had called himself “Julius.” Bentley admitted that she had never met this man, however, and that she could not identify his voice
The Defense Whereas the prosecution’s theory of the case seemed relatively straightforward, the defense’s strategy was enigmatic The defendants’ case was fraught with errors, ranging from minor to monumental Most of these mistakes have been attributed to lead defense attorney Emanuel Bloch
Bloch’s first major mistake occurred during the DIRECT EXAMINATION of David Greenglass
When the prosecution sought to introduce one
of the sketches that Greenglass had drawn, Bloch made a motion, asking the court to impound the exhibit When the prosecution attempted to question Greenglass about his notes that accompanied the sketches, Bloch asked the court to clear the press and spectators from the courtroom to prevent any further leaks
of atomic secrets The prosecution, who had been expecting Bloch to challenge Greenglass’s qualifications to testify as an expert regarding the scientific significance of the sketches, happily concurred with Bloch’s dual motions
As it turns out, the prosecution had reason to
be relieved Several nuclear physicists vehemently disputed whether an ordinary machinist such
as Greenglass possessed sufficient experience
and educational background to testify or to explain the complex principles behind the atomic bomb In an effort to obtain executive
CLEMENCY for the Rosenbergs in 1953, for example, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Harold Urey told PresidentDWIGHT D.EISENHOWERthat a
“man of Greenglass’s capacity is wholly inca-pable of transmitting the physics, chemistry, and mathematics of the bomb to anyone.” Other physicists wondered why the Soviets would even want Greenglass’s sketches, as they already had received diagrams of the bomb from Fuchs, a nuclear scientist Bloch never called any scientists to challenge Greenglass’s testimony
Historians have argued that by failing to challenge Greenglass’s scientific expertise and
by asking the court to impound his sketches, Bloch convinced the jury that it was about to hear the secret of the atomic bomb At least one
of the Rosenberg jurors agreed with this analysis, stating that it was not until Bloch had asked the court to keep the Greenglass exhibits confidential that he had become impressed with the importance of the trial
A second major mistake occurred when Bloch failed to cross-examine Gold Gold was
an admitted liar During a prior legal proceed-ing, he had told the court that as a result of his espionage activities he“had become so tangled
up in a web of lies that it was easier to continue telling an occasional lie than to try and straighten out the whole hideous mess.” When theIMPEACHMENTvalue of this prior testimony is coupled with the large number of glaring inconsistencies between Gold’s testimony dur-ing the Rosenbergs’ trial and his pretrial accounts of the same events, Bloch’s decision against cross-examining Gold looms larger The Controversy Continues
Why Bloch made these mistakes is a question that remains unanswered Although some historians claim that he was simply a bumbling attorney, Bloch had defended a number of defendants who had been accused of espionage and had developed a reputation as a competent litigator Other historians have suggested that Bloch purposely botched the trial in an effort to make martyrs of the Rosenbergs as part of a larger socialist agenda In any event, Bloch later expressed regret for his mistakes, attributing them, in part, to the politically charged legal climate of the times
436 ROSENBERGS TRIAL
Trang 10Indeed, during the early 1950s, hysteria over
COMMUNISMpervaded almost every aspect of life
in the United States As a result, criminal
defendants who were associated with
commu-nist influences often received less-than-impartial
hearings from judges and jurors This paranoid
fear of communism began to manifest itself
shortly after World War II
Several events contributed to the concern
about communism In 1948 Greece, Turkey,
and Czechoslovakia were under siege by
com-munists China came under communist control
in the spring of 1949 On January 21, 1950,
ALGER HISS, a former member of President
Franklin D Roosevelt’s administration, was
convicted of PERJURY for statements he had
made in response to espionage charges that had
been lodged against him A few weeks after the
Hiss conviction, Senator JOSEPH R MCCARTHY
from Wisconsin startled the nation by
brand-ishing a list of 205 communists who, he
asserted, were employed by the federal
govern-ment In June 1950, the KOREAN WAR erupted,
and the Rosenbergs were arrested
This series of events affected the FBI’s
investigation of the Rosenberg conspiracy
J Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, had
become concerned about public perception of
his organization Some officials had begun to
question whether Hoover and the FBI were
acting with sufficient vigilance to extinguish the
internal communist threat With each new
revelation about communist spies in the U.S
government, Hoover took more severe
mea-sures to shore up what some perceived as
national security breaches The Rosenberg case
was an example of the most extreme measures
taken by the FBI
Government files demonstrate that the FBI
had expressed little interest in prosecuting Ethel
Rosenberg until her husband refused to confess
and implicate others in his spy ring “There is
no doubt,” Hoover wrote to the attorney
general J Howard McGrath, that “it would be
possible to proceed against other individuals”
if “Julius Rosenberg would furnish details of
his extensive espionage activities.” “Proceeding
against his wife,” Hoover emphasized, “might
serve as a lever in this matter.” Shortly after this
letter was written, Ethel was arrested and
charged with the same crime as her husband
When Julius refused to cooperate with the
FBI, the government informed the defendants
that the death penalty would be sought in the event of their conviction The FBI never relented from its use of Ethel as a “lever”
against Julius, ultimately executing Ethel for her role as an accessory to the crime committed by her husband and brother Declassified docu-ments show that the entire testimony relating to Ethel’s role as a typist for her husband’s espionage ring, which was the only evidence offered to implicate her in the conspiracy, had been concocted by the FBI and the Greenglasses just eight days before the trial began
Historians have raised other suspicions with regard to the FBI’s investigation of the Rosen-bergs On May 22, 1950, Gold submitted an initial, written confession to the FBI The confession made a passing reference to Albu-querque but made no assertion that he had been sent by “Julius” to see a man named “Green-glass” from whom he had acquired secret information about the atomic bomb Nor did the confession allude to irregularly shaped pieces of a Jell-O box or a Soviet agent named Yakovlev
After a number of subsequent interviews with the FBI, some of which had been conducted
in the presence of David Greenglass, Gold said that he was able to remember each of the missing details that he had earlier “forgotten.” Walter and Miriam Schneir, authors of Invitation to an Inquest, have argued that these allegedly “forgot-ten” details were supplied to Gold by the FBI so that his story would corroborate the Green-glasses’ testimony The FBI has steadfastly maintained that it did nothing improper, unethical, or illegal to jog Gold’s memory, and declassified government files from the case have offered no“smoking gun.”
Many supporters of the Rosenbergs who have long suspected that the FBI manufactured evidence to strengthen its case do not deny that Julius was involved in some form of espionage for the Soviet Union In 1995 the NSA released 49 decoded Soviet intelligence messages that it had intercepted during World War II These messages offered proof that Julius, whose code name was
“Liberal,” was the ringleader of an espionage network of young U.S communists who pro-vided the Soviets with documents relating to classified radar and aircraft information
The intercepted messages imply that Julius might have been involved in efforts to obtain information from the Manhattan Project but