In the 1950s version of Bonnie and Clyde, criminal soulmates Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of espionage and sentenced to death by electric chair. Their trial became an example of the severity of government secrecy to the rest of the United States. As a result of this case, the government, and institutions like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), were forced to question the authority and trustworthiness of their own people.
After the end of the Second World War, the allied relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union quickly deteriorated. As tensions rose, the United States changed the future of warfare when they began creating nuclear weapons in the Manhattan Project. …show more content…
Despite the lack of concrete evidence, Judge Irving R. Kaufman sentenced the couple to execution by electric chair. Along with selling research, they were accused of coordinating a Communist Party affiliated “spy ring”. The Rosenbergs refused to plead guilty to the conviction, maintaining innocence until their deaths in 1953. Ethel pleaded, “We are innocent ... and to forsake this truth is to pay too high a price for even the priceless gift of life—for life thus purchased we could not live out in dignity and self-respect," (“Ethel Rosenberg” 19). Many Americans were horrified by the betrayal of the Rosenbergs and considered their crimes worse than murder because of the fact that the information they shared threatened the lives of all …show more content…
As a result of his conviction, in 2001, Hanssen was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences in a maximum security prison. Although Hanssen’s crimes were almost 50 years after the arrests of the Rosenbergs, the severity of his acts was treated with the same relentless authority as the sentencing of the Rosenbergs. The trial of Robert Hanssen proved that the United States government was still just as serious about government secrecy and relations with the Soviet Union as they were in the 1950s.
Though the end of the Cold War is considered to be in 1991, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, now Russia, have not improved. Like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the mid 20th century, Robert Hanssen contributed to this hostile relationship in the late 20th century. Hanssen started his career with the Chicago Police Department but worked his way up to to an FBI agent, eventually working at the headquarters in Washington, D.C. As an FBI agent, he had access to government intelligence, which he often sold to Russian agencies in exchange for money, just as the Rosenbergs
After the end of the Second World War, the allied relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union quickly deteriorated. As tensions rose, the United States changed the future of warfare when they began creating nuclear weapons in the Manhattan Project. …show more content…
Despite the lack of concrete evidence, Judge Irving R. Kaufman sentenced the couple to execution by electric chair. Along with selling research, they were accused of coordinating a Communist Party affiliated “spy ring”. The Rosenbergs refused to plead guilty to the conviction, maintaining innocence until their deaths in 1953. Ethel pleaded, “We are innocent ... and to forsake this truth is to pay too high a price for even the priceless gift of life—for life thus purchased we could not live out in dignity and self-respect," (“Ethel Rosenberg” 19). Many Americans were horrified by the betrayal of the Rosenbergs and considered their crimes worse than murder because of the fact that the information they shared threatened the lives of all …show more content…
As a result of his conviction, in 2001, Hanssen was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences in a maximum security prison. Although Hanssen’s crimes were almost 50 years after the arrests of the Rosenbergs, the severity of his acts was treated with the same relentless authority as the sentencing of the Rosenbergs. The trial of Robert Hanssen proved that the United States government was still just as serious about government secrecy and relations with the Soviet Union as they were in the 1950s.
Though the end of the Cold War is considered to be in 1991, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, now Russia, have not improved. Like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the mid 20th century, Robert Hanssen contributed to this hostile relationship in the late 20th century. Hanssen started his career with the Chicago Police Department but worked his way up to to an FBI agent, eventually working at the headquarters in Washington, D.C. As an FBI agent, he had access to government intelligence, which he often sold to Russian agencies in exchange for money, just as the Rosenbergs