Every month, it seems, another Cold War controversy is closed — in the anti-Communists’ favor — and not everyone is happy about it. On March 16, both the New York Times and the Washington Post carried stories about Julius Rosenberg’s Soviet handler, the octogenarian Alexander Feklisov, who had finally spoken about the case at length. Yes, Rosenberg had been a spy, ” a true revolutionary who was willing to sacrifice himself for his beliefs.” He had provided valuable information to the Soviet Union but had not been an important atomic spy, unlike Klaus Fuchs, “who told us everything about Los Alamos.”
The Post’s headline was apt: “Julius Rosenberg Spied, Russian Says.” The Times’s headline was more interesting: “K.G.B. Agent Plays Down Atomic Role of Rosenbergs.” Well, yes, but that’s rather like running the headline, on Aug. 9, 1974, “Nixon No Longer in Danger of Impeachment.”
