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Difficulty: MediumDomestic Cold War and the Second Red Scare

"I consider your crime worse than murder. . . . I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bomb years before our best scientists predicted they would perfect it has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resulting casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason."

— Judge Irving Kaufman, sentencing statement in the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, 1951

Which of the following developments in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s is most directly reflected in the sentiments expressed in the excerpt?

  1. A widespread public anxiety that domestic subversion and espionage threatened national securityAnswer
  2. B
    A foreign policy shift that treated regional conflicts in Asia as entirely separate from the global containment of communism
  3. C
    A return to absolute diplomatic isolationism to avoid entanglement in foreign disputes
  4. D
    A growing political consensus that New Deal social programs had successfully neutralized domestic communist sympathizers

Answer

A widespread public anxiety that domestic subversion and espionage threatened national security
The correct answer is correct because the trial and conviction of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union occurred at the peak of the Second Red Scare. The trial heightened public fears that hidden Soviet spies and domestic subversion were actively undermining U.S. national security, especially when combined with international events like the Soviet atomic bomb test and the Korean War.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the provided historical source to identify the context and central argument.
The excerpt is from the sentencing statement of the Rosenberg espionage trial in 1951, which linked domestic atomic espionage to Soviet military aggression in the Korean War.
Understanding the specific historical event (the Rosenberg trial) and its connection to the global Cold War helps place the stimulus within the correct period and theme.
2
Evaluate the choices to determine which broad historical development matches the sentiment of the source.
The judge's fear of treasonous actions aiding the Soviet Union aligns with the domestic climate of the Second Red Scare, where the public was deeply anxious about internal subversion and spy networks.
This links the specific case of the Rosenbergs to the broader domestic atmosphere of anti-communist fear and paranoia in the United States.

Key Concept

The Second Red Scare and Domestic Espionage Fears
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Topics

Domestic Cold War and the Second Red Scare

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