Which couple were the first civilians executed for spying for the USSR in 1953?

• A. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• B. Alger Hiss
• C. Klaus Fuchs
• D. J. Robert Oppenheimer

Answer: (A)

During the early Cold War, fears about Soviet atomic secrets drove harsh responses to espionage. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a civilian couple, were accused of passing details about the atomic bomb to the USSR. Julius had worked on the Manhattan Project, and prosecutors argued they conspired to relay that information. They were convicted in 1951 and executed in 1953, making them the first civilians in the United States to be executed for spying for the USSR.

Alger Hiss was charged with perjury in a separate espionage-related case and was not executed. Klaus Fuchs did leak information to the Soviets but was tried in Britain and received a long prison sentence, not the death penalty. J. Robert Oppenheimer, a key scientist in the Manhattan Project, was not charged with espionage and was never executed.