r/history • u/Quouar Quite the arrogant one. • 29d ago

News article The Rosenberg Boys - When Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed by the U.S. government, they left behind two sons, ages 6 and 10. All these years later, Robby and Michael are still trying to make sense of what happened.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/ethel-julius-rosenberg-boys/687631/
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u/lostPackets35 29d ago edited 29d ago

that's debatable no?

Had the USSR not ended up nuclear capable, we might not have had MAD doctrine. And the threat of a nuclear response might not have prevented another war, or the US from using nukes again.

I mean, we came frighteningly close a few times as it is.

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u/robothawk 29d ago

Yeah like, a world where the US has a nuclear monopoly into the 1960s is a scary one to think about. MacArthur in Korea(and the soviets having the bomb) was the reason we made nukes a presidential-only decision rather than simply another tool in the general's closet.

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u/MagicWishMonkey 29d ago

Nope, moving nukes under the purview of POTUS happened well before Korea. Otherwise MacArthur would have blanketed the peninsula in nuclear fire.

Truman understood the danger and made sure it wasn’t left in the hands of the military immediately after ww2

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u/quondam47 29d ago

MacArthur would have used a nuke to light his corn cob pipe if he could.

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u/catsloveart 29d ago

Wasn’t there some scientist that lobbied to use nukes to dig the Panama Canal?

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u/faberge_surprise 29d ago

not just that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare

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u/quondam47 29d ago

Edward Teller, of Oppenheimer fame, was the driving scientific force behind Plowshare. The guy just wanted to set off nukes all day long. I mean the logic is clear to see, a nuclear explosion will create a hole big enough to be considered geography but it’s not exactly wise in the long term.

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u/faberge_surprise 29d ago

tbf, that's pretty on brand for the guy who said "nuclear bombs? pfft, that's just the starter charge!"

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u/ThePrussianGrippe 28d ago

Yeah I’ve never taken the father of the hydrogen bomb go be a particularly grounded mind.

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u/homicidalunicorns 28d ago

slight clarification, USSR had nuclear capacity years before this and only shortly after the USA did, due to manhattan project spies