Photo: FDR Library Digital Collection
Et Tu, Eleanor?
I searched for the history of how Eleanor Roosevelt dealt with the issue of the death sentences of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (“On Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,” Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, George Washington University) for stealing the so-called secret of the atomic bomb and handing the information to the Soviet Union.
Eleanor was generally considered a liberal and much of the history of the Roosevelt administration represents Eleanor urging the president to champion liberal causes, or move him further to the liberal side on issues. The urging may have been true for some issues related to the Great Depression, but on some of the major issues such as the treatment of Japanese-Americans, Eleanor was anything but a liberal influence at the beginning of the war. She sounded exactly like the majority who wanted extreme revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Her position moderated as the war continued and she recognized the human rights issues involved in the ongoing internment of Japanese-Americans.
A few years ago the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, located at Hyde Park, New York, presented a comprehensive special exhibit on the plight of Japanese-Americans after the war began. One of the first display areas of the exhibit contained a quote by Eleanor, hung from the ceiling, in which she attempted to justify the suspension of the right to due process for interned Japanese-Americans who had lost everything in the frenzy of hate. About 120,000 Japanese-Americans were sent to US concentration camps between 1942 and 1945. Despite a half-hearted reparations program during the Reagan administration that threw those who had been interned and their heirs crumbs, there was a near-universal loss of their homes, businesses, farms, and of course their freedom for the crime of coming from the same group as those who attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The interned included men, women, children and seniors. Remarkably, many Japanese-Americans of draft age joined the war effort and the military. Later in the war Eleanor changed her opinion of the internment, but it was too little, too late.
Long freed from the shadow of the White House at the time of the Rosenbergs’ executions in 1953, Eleanor showed an abiding kind of anticommunism usually associated with far-right Republicans, and especially Joseph McCarthy during the Cold War and the Korean War. Eleanor had sparred with representatives of communist nations during the creation of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but her reaction to the plight of the Rosenbergs was exponentially greater than anything from her days at the UN. The Declaration calls for the protection of human rights through the rule of law, but what follows is what Eleanor Roosevelt wrote about the Rosenbergs.
“I don't believe in capital punishment, but we do have capital punishment in our country. I don't know if putting the Rosenbergs to death will do us more good than if they were under a sentence of life imprisonment, but this country operates under law and as long as we have laws we must live up to them, making sure that the law is fairly administrated [sic].”
ER believed that the American justice system was more than capable of determining justice for the Rosenbergs. When a Mr. John Dooley wrote her a letter expressing "grave doubt" as to the "Rosenbergs's guilt," she replied: "They are in touch with a good lawyer and if there is any question that the trial was unfair an appeal could be made. I do not think it is up to us as laymen to interfere in this case.”
When Terry Duxler, Secretary of the Citizens' Committee for Clemency for the Rosenbergs, published a letter claiming that Mrs. Roosevelt was one of the "world personalities" who supported clemency, ER drafted a reply.
Duxler:
“[a] copy of your form letter was sent me & I am very much surprised to find my name included with others[.] I never authorized the use of my name & I do not approve of asking for clemency. Please remove my name & publish this denial[.]”
“send registered mail”
“return card requested”
Consider that the case against Ethel was cooked up by both the government and David and Ruth Greenglass, her brother and sister-in-law. In fact, it was Ruth Greenglass who typed some of the information sent to the Soviets.
Julius and Ethel did not have competent legal representation from their lead attorney and Mrs. Roosevelt’s assertion that they did is unfounded.
This is all damning proof of a lack of compassion for both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg by Eleanor Roosevelt. Julius was guilty of espionage, but not to the extent upon which the US government convicted him. Current documentation finds no evidence of any culpability of Ethel. She may have been a recruiter of members for the US communist party, but that was not a crime punishable by death and especially the death of a mother of two young children.
During eras when extraordinarily horrific events take place such as the attack on Pearl Harbor and the attacks of September 11, 2001, those willing to shed the rule of law are many and a majority. Fear drives many people to want safety and demand security above the law and that fear leads to outcomes not usually seen in civil society.
Et tu, Eleanor?