[Navy Patriot]

If the Rosenbergs had cooperated,their death sentence would have been commuted so they died for the Soviet secrets they kept.

Yep, The Rosenbergs held their own fate in their own hands, they both would have been spared if they simply named their contacts.

[Doctor Stochastic]

From their point of view, they were willing to die rather than reveal their contacts. This is expected of all spymasters. They are not supposed to betray their troops. They were buying time for the ring to escape.

We often tend to forget that enemies may be patriotic, brave, clever, etc. (Of course we still have to kill them.) It's too bad that people of otherwise good character may be on the wrong side. (See the movie, "El Dorade" for an example.)

I thought that "Liberal" was Ethel's code name. Perhaps I don't remember correctly. This is from one of the Venona books.