[blau993]

Ethel typed her husband's notes and was the ideologically more committed of the couple. Ethel also recruited her brother.

That was the Government's argument with respect to Ethel, but even people on the Government side have expressed some doubt about Ethel's actual participation. The proof against her was thin, and there is no doubt, as the article notes, that the Government was using her as a bargaining chip to get Julius to open up. All of which does not mean she was innocent. It just casts doubt on whether the Government really proved her guilt.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I think serious (as opposed to ideologically blinded) historians agree with the facts in my sentence you cited. Proof is in the eye of the beholder. Ethel Rosenberg died of arrogance. She could have asked for mercy and she did not. She cared more for her ideological reputation than her children. Her children will never accept this fact.

A lot of people in the 1950's were certain that Communism was the wave of the future. She saw herself as the very avatar of that future and would do nothing that might diminish that stature.