Ethel Rosenberg was executed 10 minutes later at 8:15 PM after several failed attempts (Moss 101-102). These facts seem basic and truthful, but the complications and controversy surrounding them is anything but that. .
The severity of Julius Rosenberg's sentencing was based upon the fact that he handed classified and detailed information of the Atomic Bomb to the Soviet Union. This assumption was based upon only a rough sketch of David Greenglass". There is more than enough evidence to prove that the sketch Rosenberg gave the Soviets was insignificant to their knowledge of the atomic bomb. .
Greenglass was a machinist at the A-Bomb Headquarters in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He claimed that at his work, he made a sketch of the Lens Mold of the Atomic Bomb, and gave it to Rosenberg to deliver to the Russians. During Rosenberg's trial, Walter Koski was called to the stand. Koski, an expert offical of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, (AEC) testified that the sketches were not exact enough to serve as any type of blue prints (Moss 45). Rosenberg did in fact give the Soviet Union this sketch, but the significance of this knowledge is greatly exaggerated. .
Many more respected experts on the subject agreed that Greenglass" sketch could not have provided any special intelligence to the Soviet Union. They referred to the sketch as "a worthless caricature with many errors." Harold C.Urey, a nobel prize winning physicist sent a telegram to President Eisenhower before the Rosenberg's execution. He stated that "an army mechanic like David Greenglass was wholly incapable of transmittion the physics, chemistry and mathematics of the bomb to anyone" (Radosh 433). Philip Morrison, a top Los Alamos physicist, stated that after looking at Greenglass" sketch, he came to the conclusion that they "demonstrate a lack of comprehension and do not give any correct qualitive information" (Radosh 433). .
Highly acclaimed accounts of the true knowledge given to the Soviet Union by American spies have been published.