Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs

In the years following World War II, American paranoia shifted from the Nazis and the Japanese to the communists, especially in the Soviet Union. This paranoia fueled many spy cases; the two most famous cases were those of Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs. In 1948, a former Communist spy, Whittaker Chambers, accused Alger Hiss of spying on the United States for the Soviet Union. The biggest piece of evidence was microfilm of government documents supposedly found on Hiss’s typewriter. Congressman Richard Nixon gained fame through trying to prosecute Hiss, who was convicted of perjury and sent to jail. Hiss claimed he was innocent, but later evidence showed he was guilty.

The next case began with the explosion of the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb, three to five years earlier than expected, On September 3, 1949. Klaus Fuchs admitted giving information about the American atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, minor activists in the American Communist Party, were implicated in the case. The Rosenbergs denied the charges and pleaded the 5th amendment, but they were found guilty of espionage. The couple was sentenced to death by electric chair in June 1953, despite heavy public protest.

By Andrew and Bonan