recall powers. The Rosenbergs are separated for, obversely, the same reason. An ad appears in The New York Times: âFrom now on, let us make no mistake about it: the war is on, the chips are down. Those among us who defend Russia or Communism are enemies of freedom and traitors to the United Nations and the United States. American soldiers are dyingâ¦every manâs house will be in a target area before this ends!â The Yankee Peddler, turning to meet this new challenge in Asia, is knocked reelingâinvading North Koreans cross the 38th Parallel and roll south; Americans land at Inchon, cross the 38th Parallel, and roll north; the Chinese Peopleâs Volunteers cross the Manchurian border and roll southâand by the time the clerk in Room 110 of the Foley Square Courthouse in New York City is ready to step forward on Tuesday morning, March 6, 1951, to call out the case of âthe United States versus Julius Rosenberg, Ethel Rosenberg, and Morton Sobell, et al.,â the whole scene is in great disarray, Uncle Sam doesnât know whether heâs coming or going, the Mongol hordes of Red China have overrun Tibet as well as Korea and are pressing out in all directions like a bursting waterbag, the Russians are arrogantly lighting up the sky with atomic-bomb tests, the President and his General are at loggerheads, and Nightmare Alleyâthe escape route out of the Korean hills to the southâis littered with frozen American dead. âWe have met the enemy,â cries Uncle Sam, gasping for breath, âand bile me fer a seahorse if I wouldnât ruther crawl into a nest oâ wildcats, heels foremost, than be cotched alone in the nighttime with one oâ them heathen buggers again!â T IMEâS Mother Luce, who, perhaps inspired by the early successes, has been urging her son to push the idea of living with perpetual war as part of the American Way of Life, now writes despondently:
I had a call from John Foster Dulles, a very special assistant to Secretary of State Acheson. Dulles said he was at his home in New York and could I come after dinner. When I got there I found Foster and Brother Allen and a foreign service officer. The atmosphere was solemn. Foster Dulles put the situation to me concisely and precisely. He said the American army had been surrounded and a Marine division too. âIt is,â said Dulles, âthe only army we have. And the question is: shall we ask for terms?â I could hardly believe my ears and that is what I saidâ¦.
As the brightly badged bailiff enters from the Judgeâs chambers and faces the packed courtroom in Foley Square, T IMEâS visionary kid brother is declaring: âL IFE sees no choice but to acknowledge the existence of war with Red China and to set about its defeat, in full awareness that this course will probably involve war with the Soviet Union as well!â Work on the H-bomb proceeds feverishly, but there are fears the Russians may have stolen that one before itâs even been invented. Joe McCarthy, the Fighting Marine, demands that General MacArthur, who is widely reported to be âthe greatest man alive,â be given the discretionary authority in Asia for âspeedy action of the roughest and toughest kind of which we are capable!â The bailiff pounds his knuckled fist on the door three times and calls out: âEverybody please rise!â Thereâs a scraping of chairs, a scuffling of feet, the Strategic Air Command is put on alert, the Communist program for world domination is released by the House Un-American Activities Committee. A New York Times headline announces: DANGER OF ATOM BOMB ATTACK IS GREATEST IN PERIOD UP TO THIS FALL ! The Judge entersâa ripple of surprise: Uncle Sam has chosen for his Easter Trial little Irving Kaufman, the Boy Judge, a stubby Park Avenue Jew and Tammany Hall Democrat who looks a little like a groundhog himself with his plastered-down hair, thick bumpy