The 1950's was a time period of many conflicts, ideas and everything else. This was an era that had different themes such as music civil rights and these themes all had a representative that was known becuase of his or her relationship to the topic. For example a huge theme was music and rock and roll and when people think about rock and roll they think about Elvis Presley. Right after World War II tensions grew between the United States and the Soviet Union, which was the beginning of the Cold War. Fear of espionage spread throughout the United States. This was another theme in the early 50's and the Rosenbergs who were accused and execueted for espionage represented this fear.

When the government authorized the Manhatten Project and the Atom Bomb was built we were one step ahead of the Soviet Union in weapons of mass destruction. Espionage was a big concern at this time becuase we didn't want the Soviets to find ou how to make the Atomic Bomb, which would escalate tensions even more between these two countries. When the Soviet Union tested and Atomic Bomb we thought taht they had stolen designs that the United States had made of the bomb. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin began to accuse members of the State Deparment as communist and his accusations led to people becoming more afraid of spies and they began to seuspect even there neighbors as possible Reds or Communists. A long investigation of a suspected spy ring led the FBI to the Rosenbergs who were tried and execueted on no hard evidence. The execuetion of the Rosenbergsrepresented the fear that the people had of espionage at this time, to kill a man and woman with no substantial evidence of treason.

The FBI's road to even considering the Rosenbegs as spies and the trieal itself was long, hard and very questionable of whether justice was really served. The FBI was always on alert for any sign of espionage and when David Greenglass, Ethel's brother confessed to giving secrets of the Manhattean project to a Swiss immigrant, Harry Gold the search was on. Greenglass also said h had given secret information to Ethel and Julius and the FBI came after the Rosenbergs. Julius said that he had received no information and that Greenglass was a liar. Max Elitcher told the FBI that Julius had tried to get information from him about the military ideas and plans but he had refused. The FBI took the Rosenbergs to court on the accusation of conspiracy to commit espionage.

The Rosenbergs case caused a lot of mixed feelings between the public who mostly wanted to see the Rosenbergs killed for their aact of treason. The case itself was all basd on word against word and there was no evidence for either side. Every person involved in the case which included, Greenglass, Elitcher and Gold testified to the Rosenbergs either receiving information from them or asking them for information and it was that versus the Rosenbergs saying they were innocent. Also the Rosenbergs tried to get passports meaning they were planning on leaving the country, which didn't look very good for them in court. Since everyone wanted to make sure that potential spies were stopped the jury voted that the Rosenbergs were guilty so the Rosenbergs appealed and the case went to the Supreme Court. By that time the trial had gotten out to the public and people were going on marches with signs wanting the Rosenbergs to be execueted. The Supreme Court ordered the Rosenbergs to the electric chair and they were killed on June 19th 1953.

Even though there was nothing that could really convince the jury that the Rosenbergs had actually passed atomic weapons information to the Soviet Union they were still convicted and killed. This was becuase of the fear that the people had that was fueled on by people like Senator Joseph McCarthy and they needed to accuse someone to ease their fears. The Rosenbergs represent the Cold War and espionage and these themes were a big part of the 1950's.