Ronald Radosh

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Ronald Radosh is an American historian specializing in the Cold War. He is best known for his work on the espionage case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. In the 1983 book, The Rosenberg File, he and co-author Joyce Milton conclude that Julius Rosenberg was guilty of espionage and that Ethel was aware of his activities. A second edition in 1997 incorporates newly-obtained evidence from the former Soviet Union. Radosh also condemns prosecutorial misconduct in the case.

Radosh is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, Washington, DC,[[1]] and professor of history emeritus at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York [[2]]. His commentaries on the Rosenbergs and other topics have appeared in The New Republic, The Weekly Standard and National Review, and the blog Frontpagemag.com. His memoirs are entitled Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left, and the Leftover Left.

Although Radosh was initially a self-described Red Diaper Baby, and for most of his academic career was intimately associated with leftist causes, e.g. an intellectual defense of the Rosenbergs, initial support for the FMLN and opposition to the Contras, etc., he gradually evolved into a neoconservative polemicist in the mold of his colleagues, David Horowitz and Peter Collier.

Two pivotal moments that solidified this change of philosophy were his decision to collaborate with Joyce Milton on an examination of the Rosenberg files-which led him to conclude that Julius Rosenberg was indeed guilty of the espionage charges he would ultimately be convicted of, with his wife potentially being an important accomplice in this scheme-and a visit to Central America during the 1980s. This was done because he was considering writing a piece for The New Republic, which he had intended as a balanced portrait of the government led by Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas.

However, after examining the composition of the government - and its policies - he came to the conclusion that it was infiltrated by Stalinists, and was not moving in a democratic direction.

These two events-which Radosh describes as being crucial in the evolution of his political philosophy-led him to be ostracized from his former allies, and for both sides to begin a reciprocal-and often vituperative-public war of words that continues to this day.

Radosh's critics accuse him of exaggerating the significance of Soviet espionage in the US, while he maintains that they are naive, doctrinaire leftists, who haven't reconciled themselves to the crimes committed on behalf of Communism, and whose enmity stems from that fundamental flaw.

Radosh is the father of journalist Daniel Radosh.

1 Bibliography
2 External links
3 Essays and Reviews
4 Criticism

[edit] Bibliography

Prophets On The Right, 1975
The Rosenberg File, 1983 ISBN 0-300-07205-8
The Amerasia Spy Case: Prelude to McCarthyism, 1996
Divided They Fell: The Demise of the Democratic Party 1964-1996, 1998
Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left, and the Leftover Left, Encounter Books 2001, ISBN 1-893554-05-8
Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War, 2005
Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance With The Left, with Allis Radosh, Encounter Books 2005, ISBN 1-893554-96-1